The Crossroads of Fate
by witchinmoonlight
Summary: Sequel to La Abeille et Le Renard. New Miraculous wielders Abeille, Renard and Jade Ninja have encountered a disaster and failed to stop it from unfolding into an even worse situation. With the heroes divided, Hawkmoth has never been so close to victory. But what happened? What became of Ladybug and Cat Noir? And is there any hope left for Paris? (On Hiatus.)
1. The Dissolution of a Trio

Author's Notes:

-Here is the sequel to La Abeille et Le Renard. Everything from that universe timeline carries over, despite new information being revealed. (No spoilers please.) Still waiting for Season 2 to be released on Netflix. I was going to wait until then, but since the release date's been pushed back AGAIN, and because you could argue La Abeille et Le Renard was an alternative season 2, you could argue this is an AU of Season 3, I decided to start publishing after finals.

What a mouthful... Anyway, let's get this train chugging!

"Come on, guys! The akuma's getting away!" said a guy in a green jumpsuit.

The fox scoffed and continued running with the rest of his teammates by his side. "We know that!" He turned to a girl with large wings on her back. "Why aren't you flying after it?"

"Don't you remember?! I can't fly!"

The three heroes, Jade Ninja, Renard and Abeille were running down the streets of Paris. They were in a very bad situation. An akuma was loose and Ladybug wasn't around to purify it. They were scrambling to find a fix and fast.

Abeille looked towards Jade. "Why can't Jade use his shield to hover after it?"

"It suffered too much damage and shut down. It won't work for who knows how long!"

"Then try to slow the akuma down! We need time!"

"Time Crawl!" He fired a green blast of energy at the akuma. The akuma, which had been flying fast, was slowed down. "I'm almost out of charges. Only got one left. Hopefully this will buy us some time."

The heroes slowed down their pace while continuing to run. "Okay, we need a plan. Ladybug and Cat Noir are not here, so what can we do to stop the akuma from multiplying?" Abeille asked.

"We have to destroy it. There's no other way." Renard answered.

"But how? You tried using your energy beam and it failed. And Jade's Time Crawl can only work for so long."

"Don't you get it?! We need your powers!"

Abeille was perplexed by his statement. She stopped, and so did the others. "Me? But what can I do?"

"Use Malevolence, no wait, Poison Sting, on the akuma. It'll destroy it for good."

She gasped. "No way! I swore I would never use those abilities!"

"You have to!" Renard exclaimed. "The fate of Paris is at stake!"

"I'm not using those powers. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I'm not Queen Bee!"

"I know you're not! But we don't have any choice!"

Abeille looked at the akuma. Jade Ninja's power was beginning to wear off.

"I... I don't know how to use Malevolence." she hesitated. "Or Poison Sting."

"Use Poison Sting. Picture purple energy around your spear and aim carefully. You only get one shot!"

"How do I charge it?!"

"Focus your anger! Think of what you hate the most!"

Immediately she thought of Chloe. All of the years her civilian self had been used as a slave, all of the crimes she did, as herself and as Queen Bee. The spear quickly charged and the spell on the akuma had broken.

"Hurry!"

"Poison Sting!"

She threw the beam of purple energy towards the akuma, but it missed by a mere second. It hit a mirror, then another one until the beam hit a young girl. The young girl screamed in pain as she was engulfed in purple energy.

"NO!" Abeille dropped her spear and ran over to the girl. The girl looked towards Abeille. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

The girl screamed one last time before falling to her knees and onto the ground. Abeille backed away and looked towards the sky. Other people in the city gasped in terror.

"It's over." Renard said.

The Bee Miraculous beeped. At that moment, everyone looked up and watched helplessly in terror as the akuma multiplied and spread out. The little girl was turned into a copy of a villain with a long purple cloak and a long staff in hand. Abeille's spear was strapped on her back. The heroes were standing at a four way intersection.

"Nice going, Abeille." Renard sarcastically commented. "This is all your fault!"

Abeille scoffed as she approached him. "My fault?! How is this my fault?!"

He pointed at her. "You're the one who broke the akumatized object! You're not supposed to break it!"

"I didn't mean to! How was I supposed to know that's where the akuma was?!"

"You idiot! Akumatized objects are always the villain's main weapon!"

"Wrong! It's usually a weapon, but not always. Have you not heard of the Gamer? Antibug? Kung Food?!"

"Guys, knock it off!" Jade interrupted.

Abeille's Miraculous beeped again.

"You should have known better!"

"We were about to be vanquished! What did you expect me to do?!"

Jade yelled, "Knock it off you two!"

His cries were ignored. Abeille glared at Renard. "You're always criticizing me for every fault!"

"I'm trying to protect the city! With the Lucky Duo gone, there's no room for error!"

Jade looked at them angrily. "How long are you guys going to keep this up?!"

"Until my time runs out!"

Abeille's comb lost another point.

"You can't do anything right! Ladybug made the wrong choice!" Renard retorted.

Abeille felt her anger reaching her boiling point. "Shut up! I never want to see either of you again! You're wrong!"

"You can't lie. You know I'm right. You don't belong here on the team! You don't deserve your Miraculous!"

"I said, 'Shut the hell up!'"

She slapped Renard in the face. Hard. The nearby spectators gasped. Abeille looked at them in terror as her Miraculous beeped again. She had only a minute. She ran away crying, pushing innocent civilians out of the way as she ran towards the west.

Jade glared at his remaining teammate. "Nice going, Renard!"

Renard looked at Jade as if he was crazy. "What? I'm only being honest."

"With the Lucky Duo M.I.A, we need all the help we can get! And now Abeille's left us behind!"

"So what? You're the one in charge of the group! It's your fault she left."

"My fault? You're the one always criticizing her! You're nothing but a jerk!"

"What?! I am not a jerk!"

"You're really horrible! I can't stand working with you and Abeille arguing 24/7!"

"If I'm so horrible, then maybe I should leave too. I don't need you punks!"

Renard stormed off, heading east.

"Fine!" Jade Ninja yelled. "With friends like you," his voice then became softer. "who needs... enemies?" As soon as he said those words, he regretted it. His anger turned to sorrow. He went south as the crowd dispersed.

From a rooftop above, Cat Noir, who had seen the entire scene, sighed sadly. He didn't know what to do, so he didn't interfere. Should he have stepped in? He looked at the deserted intersection and then got out a list with several crossed out lines. He put it away, turned around, heading north. The four superheroes stood at the crossroads of fate, where they had gone their separate ways. Some of them were going home, while others went elsewhere. As they went their separate ways, walking the path called life, they all had the same question on their minds; How did it all come down to this?


	2. The Choice of Ladybug and Cat Noir

Author's Notes:

-Really? No reviews? I'm shocked. I better get this pain-train rolling...

-While the story does have four main third-person points of view, it will briefly shift from someone from time to time. Hopefully it doesn't get too confusing...

Cat Noir jumped from rooftop to rooftop. He felt really tired. He sat down on a rooftop and tried to remember what happened. It all started five months ago, when he and Ladybug were choosing the new Miraculous wielders. The duo stood in their civilian forms in the foyer while Gabriel was at work.

"I think we should give the Miraculouses to new people." Marinette said. "Not only would it tell the people that certain Miraculouses aren't evil, but they can help us to fight Hawkmoth and his army of akumatized villains."

Adrien said. "Alright. But who are we going to give the Miraculouses to? And who will receive which Miraculous?"

"Hmm..." She put her fingers to her chin. "This is not an easy decision. We have the Turtle, Fox and Bee to work with since the Peacock's off-limits."

"First let's talk turtle." Marinette scoffed at his pun. "I say that it should be Nino. And I'm not just saying that because he's my best friend. He's kind, brave and honest. He worked with Nathaniel to find out the truth about Chloe and Lila. He told me the truth about Chloe being Queen Bee, even when it was hard for me to believe the truth. He was also willing to risk his life so that I wouldn't be condemned to living miserably under Chloe's rule. If he doesn't deserve the Turtle Miraculous, I don't know who does."

She nodded. "You make a good point. I have an idea for the Fox Miraculous."

"I'm listening."

"Nathaniel. He's brave, he's honest and he's creative. Because of his creative nature, he could come up with clever illusions to fool the enemy."

"Not to mention he successfully resisted an akuma and bravely fought against Volpina, saving Mayor Bourgeois from her wrath and her evil plan to take over Paris." He smiled. "Now for the Bee Miraculous."

"I have an idea. She'll do very well as the Bee Miraculous holder."

"Who is it?"

"Sabrina."

Adrien looked at Marinette as if she had grown two heads. "Sabrina? Why her?"

"Because she's a sweet girl. After all that she's been through, I think having a Miraculous will help her. Somehow."

"If you say so."

Adrien opened the safe and got out the three Miraculouses. They put the Miraculouses into the boxes and transformed at the same time.

"Plagg, claws out!"

"Tikki, spots on!"

They transformed and went their separate ways. Cat Noir took the Turtle Miraculous to Nino while Ladybug took the other two Miraculouses to their respective future wielders. Cat Noir followed a familiar path, as he had been to Nino's apartment once before. Once he got there, he looked through the window, only to find Nino sleeping on his bed. He opened the window and snuck into Nino's room. The young boy was snoring. He was surprised that he wasn't awake, as it was almost 12:30. He decided not to wake up the sleeping boy. He put the Turtle Miuraculous box onto his nightstand. He saw Nino beginning to stir so he ran out the window, closed it and quickly got away.

"I hope he enjoys being the new turtle miraculous wielder." Cat Noir said to himself.

He quickly returned to the foyer and waited for Ladybug to arrive. Afterwards, she detransformed back into Marinette.

"I hope we made the right decisions." Adrien said.

Marinette smiled. "I'm sure they've got what it takes."

A few days later, Cat Noir was beginning to lose faith in the heroes. He and Ladybug were fighting Darkbade for the second time, but they were being overwhelmed by the amount of knights they had to deal with. The other heroes had yet to show up.

Cat Noir struck down another knight with his staff. "Where in the world are they?"

"Have you tried calling them?" Ladybug asked.

That thought hadn't once occurred to the young cat. He was about to call one of them when suddenly the knights grabbed his arms. Darkblade spun Ladybug's yoyo around her, tied her up, spun her around making her dizzy, and one his knights tied her up. She attempted to escape, with no luck.

"Thy efforts of escape are futile, Venomous Insect!"

"Nice move, Darkblade! Now get her earrings!" Hawkmoth ordered.

He reached for the earrings of Ladybug, but at that moment, Jade Ninja arrived and threw his shield towards Darkblade, partially cutting through his armor.

"Leave her alone, you crazed landlord!" Jade Ninja ordered.

Pretty soon, before he knew it, Darkblade had been defeated. Four weeks later, while doing patrol, the quintet was on the rooftop, doing night patrol. It was obvious that Abeille was tired.

She yawned. "Remind me, why are we here again?"

"We're doing patrol remember?" Renard asked.

"I mean why do we do patrol?"

"It's done for numerous purposes. One, to make sure Hawkmoth isn't rearing his ugly head again. And second, to make sure no one else threatens this city." Ladybug answered.

"Sometimes, although rarely, we fight normal bad guys instead of akumatized baddies. But that hasn't happened since long before the Day of Rising Moon." Cat Noir added.

"Day of the Rising Moon?" Jade asked.

"That's what many people refer to as the final battle between the Lucky Duo of Ladybug and Cat Noir vs the Malevolent Duet Queen Bee and Volpina." Renard answered. "Not only could the moon be seen before the sunset on that day, but Marinette rose up to fight the supervillains after the downfall of Ladybug. Had it not been for her efforts, the Malevolent Duet would have won. Like the moon, she shone with light when all seemed lost in darkness."

Jade nodded. "That makes sense."

"I really do owe her. She was on the brink of being akumatized, and I thought she'd fall victim to Hawkmoth." Ladybug said sadly, looking away from her team. She then smiled and looked towards her teammates. "But she turned it around. She refused and obliterated the akuma, beat the stuffing out of both of them in less than five minutes and ultimately saved the city. Maybe even the world."

Cat Noir knew why she looked away. The girl who had nearly been akumatized was her. The others didn't know, but they were happy to see Ladybug smiling.

Jade got out his shield and made it hover in air. "Hawkmoth's attacks aren't as frequent as they used to be. It's been two weeks."

"This is the longest record of time in between attacks." Abeille added. "Shouldn't we be trying to relax?"

"Oh Abeille," Renard began. "You need to be prepared for anything and everything."

"Are you saying I'm not?!"

Jade looked sternly at the two arguing heroes. "Calm down you two. It looks like there's nothing there. Let's go."

The superheroes turned their backs and started walking away. They were about to disperse when Abeille suddenly pointed something out.

"Unidentified person at ten o'clock!"

The four turned her way and saw a magician pointing a wand and making buildings disappear.

Ladybug gasped. "The Magician of Misfortune?!"

"But we beat him!" Cat Noir claimed.

Jade looked at the magician. "Apparently, he's back."

"Well, look's like there's only one thing to do." Abeille said.

Renard turned to his teammates. "We have to fight him."

They all nodded in agreement. The five heroes jumped down from the roof to confront the magician.


	3. An Old Foe with New Tricks Up His Sleeve

Author's notes:

-Really? Still nothing? (shrugs) Moving on...

The Magician of Misfortune looked at the superheroes. He frowned, then he proceeded to laugh at them. "You are fools trying to confront me again!"

"You're the fool, Misfortune! We defeated you and there were only two of us!" Cat Noir retorted.

Abeille gave him a skeptical look. "Look at it logically. There's five of us and one of you. What'ca gonna do?"

He smirked. "Glad you asked." He got out his wand and shot a bunch of rabbits towards them. "I got some new tricks up my sleeve! Pesto chango!" He fired a white beam at the rabbits and they soon turned into one giant rabbit monster. The rabbit giant growled and the quintet of heroes gasped. "Good luck trying to beat that! Arrivederci!"

He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Cat Noir gulped. "Well this is new."

"Anyone got any ideas?" Jade asked.

Ladybug got out her yoyo and advanced towards the giant. She tried lassoing one of the rabbit's legs, but he moved towards them despite her efforts to restrain him. The rabbit then picked up the yoyo and spun Ladybug around before throwing her into the wall, making her really dizzy. Cat Noir struck the beast with his staff repetitively while Jade Ninja threw his shield towards him. Neither of these had any effect on him. He smacked Cat Noir aside and tried to hit Jade Ninja, only for him to expand his shield to protect himself. Renard created an illusion of himself running away and the monster chased after it. While he was doing this, Renard climbed up and he stabbed the rabbit with his flute. Sadly it didn't do much damage. The rabbit realized the Renard that was running from him was an illusion after he stepped on it. The rabbit reached behind his back, grabbed the real fox superhero and held him tightly in his fist. He tried to escape to no avail.

"Let go of me you overgrown hare!"

"Put him down you fluffy lovable creature!"

Abeille stabbed him in the foot with her spear and he groaned in agony. He crashed back-first into a building and dropped Renard. Ladybug, who finally got her head back in the game, caught him before he hit the ground. She set him down and looked at the rabbit.

Jade Ninja looked around. "Where did the Magician go?"

"The same place he went to last time," Ladybug began.

"The Eiffel Tower." she and Cat Noir said in unison.

"Then go stop him. We've got this." Renard said.

"Are you sure?" Cat Noir asked.

They all nodded yes and Abeille responded, "Yes, go! Hurry!"

Ladybug and Cat Noir ran off, leaving the three heroes to face the rabbit alone. The Lucky Duo ran off to the Eiffel Tower, only to find that the Magician of Misfortune was already there. He had cast a large white circle of energy around the Eiffel Tower and got out a cape.

"Hold it right there, Magician!" Ladybug screamed.

The akumatized villain turned around and saw them. "You guys?! How'd you get past the giant rabbit monster?!"

"We have our ways." Cat Noir answered.

He growled and shot fireballs at them. For a while, they dodged those fireballs quite easily. That is until the fire burned Cat Noir's butt. He screamed in pain and then rolled on the ground as Ladybug shielded him from Magician's attacks.

"Cat Noir, are you okay?!"

He groaned. "Ow... I smell burnt leather."

Ladybug sniffed the air and scrunched up her face. "Ugh! That smells nasty!" She looked at Cat Noir and gasped.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh, Cat. Your tail..."

His pseudo cat tail was burned to the length of Ladybug's ponytails. He screamed. "Well that's just great."

"Abracadabra!" With a beam of white and black magic, the Eiffel Tower disappeared. The Magician of Misfortune smirked. "You're too late! Now to make you disappear!"

"I beg to differ. Lucky Charm!"

She used her superpower and conjured a fork.

"A fork?"

"Ha! You can't stop me with a mere piece of silverware!"

Ladybug looked around and saw his wand, his long cape, his hat and a nearby bush. She formed an idea.

"Cat Noir, keep him distracted!"

"Got it!"

He fought Magician with his staff while his opponent used used his wand as a sword. Ladybug threw the fork, which supposed to bounce off his hat and land on his cape, pinning him to the ground. Instead, it got stuck in his arm. He screamed in pain.

Ladybug shrugged. "Ouch. Not what I had in mind, but I guess that works."

She ran over, grabbed the wand and snapped it in half with her knee. As the akuma was released she charged up her yoyo and said, "No more evil doing for you, little akuma." She spun her yoyo around. "Time to de-evilize!" She captured the akuma. "Got'cha!" She released it as the other superheroes came. "Bye bye, little butterfly. The fork magically reappeared in her hands. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

She threw it into the air, making the Eiffel Tower reappear and fixing Cat Noir's tail. He smiled before taking a closer look at the other three. Ladybug's Miraculous beeped. She looked towards them and gasped when she finally noticed that Renard was knocked unconscious.

"Yikes, what happened to you guys?" Cat Noir asked.

"The rabbit gave us a hard time." Jade Ninja answered. "He threw Renard right into a glass window, knocking him out cold." He and Abeille set his teammate down. "I'm amazed at how he didn't detransform even when knocked unconscious."

"You'd be surprised the ability of the Miraculous to retain transformation as long as you don't use up your super powers." Cat Noir said. Just then, Ladybug's earrings beeped again. "Well, we better be retiring for the night."

"But I thought you wanted our identities to stay secret from each other." Abeille said.

"I did say that." Ladybug began. "Have any of you heard the title of Great Guardian?"

Abeille nodded no. Jade Ninja spoke, "Yeah, I have. My kwami has mentioned to me that my predecessor was the previous one. Why do you ask?"

"Well, since I'm the Great Guardian, and because Cat Noir helped me to choose the new Miraculous wielders, we know who you are under your masks. But we can not ask you to reveal your identity to your teammates. As for Cat Noir finding out who I am, he already knows. He was smart enough to figure it out on his own, despite the glamour magic that hides our true faces. Concurrently, I know who he is because he told me. He did this because he felt guilty of knowing my secret identity while I didn't know his."

Her earrings beeped again. "Uh, My Lady?"

"Oh right. Let's move."

Cat Noir scooped up Ladybug in his arms and ran off with her, leaving the others in a state of mild confusion. The feline superhero ran fast and landed in the front yard of the Agreste Mansion. Terra's silhouette could be seen through the curtains. She looked quite startled.

"Who goes there?!" Terra asked.

"Relax Terra, it's only Cat Noir and Ladybug." Gabriel answered from afar. He opened the door and saw Ladybug detransforming in Cat Noir's arms. "Do come in. I can imagine you're quite exhausted after fighting an akuma."


	4. Simon's Second Chance

Cat Noir climbed up the steps and entered the Agreste Mansion. Gabriel closed the doors and exhaled. Cat Noir set Marinette down and answered, "The Magician of Misfortune returned and he had some new tricks up his sleeve."

They went to the dining room. Marinette sat down at the table and Cat Noir did the same. Glasses of water were already there, along with a plate of cheese and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Marinette slowly began to sip some water as Tikki started nibbling on a cookie. Gabriel looked at Cat Noir. "So how did it go?"

"It was quite difficult. The Magician created a giant rabbit monster from a bunch of rabbits and the five of us had difficultly facing him. After realizing the Magician was getting closer to the Eiffel Tower, the trio decided to deal with the giant hare while we stop Magician of Misfortune."

"And how did that turn out?" Terra inquired.

"Not well, but it could have been worse. One of the superheroes was knocked unconscious after we left and it took a while to defeat the villain, but we eventually got him."

"Hawkmoth's attacks are becoming less frequent." Gabriel stated. "I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."

Marinette looked at him curiously. "Why would it be a bad thing?"

"Ever since the downfall of Queen Bee and Volpina, the amount of akuma attacks has lowered dramatically. Not only that, Hawkmoth hasn't created a new akumatized villain in several weeks. He's having to use the same villains over again."

Cat Noir looked at him strangely and a little confused. "But wasn't that occurring before the Day of the Rising Moon?"

"Yes, but my point still remains." He sighed. "I don't know why he's doing this."

Terra shrugged. "Maybe he's running out of victims to akumatize."

"I would say that, but Paris has millions of residents, tourists and temporary guests. I can name several people who haven't fallen into Hawkmoth's clutches, including you, me and Marinette's parents. I pray that will never happen."

"Or maybe he's so distressed from the loss of his two greatest servants." Tikki suggested. "One of which actually caused a lot of akumas."

Marinette smiled warmly. "You make a good point, Tikki."

"I can't help but wonder if he's saving his energy for a more powerful akuma." Gabriel added.

Cat Noir asked, "Can one akuma really be more powerful than another?"

"I believe so. Is Plagg going to eat his cheese?"

"That glutton wants me to detransform so he can eat his stinky cheese."

 _Glutton? How rude, Adrien!_

"Shut up, Plagg." The others looked at him strangely. "Sorry, an argument with my kwami. I guess I better give the cat what he wants. Plagg, claws out." Cat Noir detransformed and Plagg started eating away at the slices of assorted cheeses. Adrien looked at Plagg eating for a few seconds before turning back to the others. "You know what I think? I think this means Hawkmoth's on his last legs. We can tell that he's running out of ideas since he's having to recycle villains. Hopefully, we'll find him and end this Miraculous Civil War once and for all."

"I hope you're right. Now I'd advise you both to get some rest."

"Yeah, I should get some sleep. Goodnight everyone." Marinette said before going up the stairs.

"Alright, goodnight mom. Goodnight dad." Adrien said.

"Goodnight Adrien."

"Sleep well, you two superheroes." Terra added.

Adrien went upstairs to his room and slept throughout the night. A few days later, Cat Noir and Ladybug asked for the heroes to meet up on the rooftop Grand Paris hotel. Jade Ninja was the first to arrive, and then Abeille arrived about two minutes later.

"So what's this about?" the bee superheroine asked.

"There's something we went to show you." Cat Noir answered.

"Huh?" Renard asked.

"Perfect, everyone's here. Follow me!" Ladybug exclaimed.

They went to Temple VI Paris Apartments, where Master Fu's room was. At the door entrance there was a digital lock with a password. Ladybug entered the passcode and they stepped into what used to be Master Fu's massage shop.

"Welcome to the Safe Hero Haven. A safe haven for us superheroes. Furnished with five beds, one for each of us, private storage areas. It has a full kitchen, bathrooms and even what used to be a storage area. Now it's just a big empty space, similar to an attic. You can go there if you're about to detransform. And of course, a living room with a very comfy sofa, 32 inch screen tv with every channel known to man, a Play Station 4, Wii U, and an Xbox 360 with various games. Feel free to bring your own! We also got a small computer if you need to work on school projects or want to see Alya's Ladyblog."

"Wow, this is totally legit!" Jade Ninja exclaimed.

"Sweet!"

Renard looked at Ladybug. "But what's the purpose of this?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "If you're a fugitive, can't stay at your home or otherwise just need to get away from everything, you can come here. Sometime after Master Fu's tragic demise at the hands of our enemies, I became a fugitive and my civilian form was forced into hiding. I don't want to see you guys go through the same thing I did."

Jade, enticed with curiosity, looked towards the red and black superhero. "How did you do all of this?"

"Well, technically, we didn't make it. Mr. A owns this small apartment and he hired workers to refurbish the entire place."

The trio looked at him, wide-eyed with curiosity. "Mr. A? Who's he?" Renard asked.

"We can't tell you too much about him, but trust us, he's no enemy. He's an ally of ours. He was formerly a Miraculous wielder and he was supposed to become the Great Guardian, but at the last minute he backed out and ran away from it all."

Abeille blinked twice. "So why isn't he fighting with us now?"

"Several years ago, he unintentionally caused a tragedy. He never forgave himself for what he had done, so he gave up his Miraculous. He still has it to this day, but he never wields it." Cat Noir said.

Renard turned away and clutched his Miraculous. "I feel bad for him."

"He tries to help us as much as he can, but between his highly demanding job and his reluctance to use his Miraculous, it's rather difficult."

"So what's the access code into this haven?" Abeille asked.

Ladybug wrote down on three different slips of paper the code; 06031991. Later on, they were at the top of the Eiffel tower, which surprisingly was deserted, and spoke about the haven.

Cat Noir leaned against the railing. "They don't even know the significance of the code."

"Why would they? It was your father's graduation date."

He sat down on the railing. He buried his face in his folded arms. "I'm worried that the other three will eventually find out who Mr. A really is, and if Gabriel finds out that.. Oh man, he'd kill me..."

"I'm sure he wouldn't overreact if they find out." Cat Noir looked at Ladybug. "And besides, there's no way they would find out. I asked the receptionist at the front desk to not tell anyone who owns the apartment. You and I are the only ones who know."

"Oh My Lady, have I ever told how smart you are?"

She chuckled softly to herself. "I believe you have, but just to be sure, say it again."

He looked at Ladybug adoringly. "My Lady, you are the smartest and wisest girl I know."

"Oh, you good kitty." She looked at the city and its millions of lights. "Ya know, I can't believe I once hated you after the argument over the Miraculous Book. I wanted nothing to do with you. Yet now I love you, and nothing can ever break us apart."

"Having you as my partner in crime fighting and as the love of my life, makes me the luckiest cat in the world."

"Oh mon chaton..." She kissed him, which still stunned him. For three seconds, he was essentially paralyzed. He then closed his eyes, wrapped his arms and his tail around her waist and deepened the kiss. "We're superheroes. What could happen?"

A few days later, in the middle of July, a someone got akumatized.. again. The victim? Simon Grimault, who became Simon Says again.

"Simon Says, this is your second chance. You can get revenge on Gabriel Agreste." Hawkmoth said.

"Yes. I know what you want. You want the Miraculouses." he said as he turned into Simon Says again.

"Yes, but this time I have an additional request. If you should see a girl named Marinette, bring her to me. Once you have her in your clutches, I'll tell you where to take her."

Simon Says smirked. "Certainly, Hawkmoth. Although what does she look like?"

"She's a young lady of 15 years. Her blue hair is in pigtails, complimenting her blue eyes. She's always wearing a pink purse around her torso and black stone earrings."

"No problem. Finding her should be easy."

He set up, looking for any of his three targets.

Fortunately for him, Marinette was not hard to find. She was just outside the Cesarie Mansion, leaving the grounds with her friend Alya.

Alya asked her, "So when are you doing to tell your parents that you're living at the Agreste Mansion instead of the Cesarie residence?"

Marinette rubbed her arm. "Well..."

She gasped upon seeing Simon Says. The duo stood there, frozen in shock as he pulled out one of his cards.

"Simon Says, you're my humble servant!" He threw the card towards Marinette.


	5. Running From the Truth Yet Again

Marinette gasped as she saw the card flying towards her.

Alya pushed Marinette out of the way. "Watch out!"

"Alya?!"

The auburn haired reporter was hit with a card. She got up from the ground, went up to Simon Says and bowed to him as if he was a king. Marinette continued running.

"Chase her and bring her to me." Simon commanded.

As Alya followed his command, Simon Says also chased after Marinette while throwing cards with pause signals on them.

"Why is Simon Says after me?" Marinette asked while running.

Tikki briefly popped out of Marinette's purse. "Save your breath, Marinette!" She looked around, and pointed to an alley before closing Marinette's purse. The bluenette continued running from Simon Says and his brainwashed servant, Alya.

"You can't run forever, Marinette!" Simon Says exclaimed. He saw a lot of people around him. He got out several cards. "Simon Says, you're all my servants!"

He threw cards at the civilians and Marinette jumped behind a dumpster. Everyone got hypnotized but her.

"We can transform now!" Tikki exclaimed.

Marinette looked around herself, seeing several victims under his control, including Alix, Kim, Max and Sabrina outside the alleyway. She was nervous, as she felt her heart still pounding. She wiped some sweat off her forehead and breathed out. "But won't I be seen?"

"They're under Simon Says' control. Nobody will know, care or remember the transformation."

She didn't hesitate any further. "You're right. Tikki, spots on!"

Marinette transformed into Ladybug. She got out her yoyo and called for Cat Noir. Meanwhile, Adrien was playing some video games when suddenly Plagg started vibrating.

"Hello?"

"Cat, I need your help. I'm at the park over nearby Francoise Dupont. Simon Says has hypnotized an army of servants." Ladybug quickly answered.

"Oh no. He's probably after Gabriel Agreste again." He sighed. Marinette had thought of mentioning that Simon targeted her instead of going for his dad, but she decided not to. "Alright, I'll get the others." He put Plagg down before saying, "Plagg, claws out!"

Adrien turned into Cat Noir. He called for a video chat with the trio, with the results of successfully contacting Jade Ninja and Renard.

Jade was the first to respond. "Hey Cat, what's up?"

"You rang?" Renard asked.

"Simon Says has returned. I need you guys to meet up with us at the park nearby Francoise Dupont."

"Got it."

"Roger that."

The three young men met up with Ladybug in the park over nearby the statue of Ladybug and Cat Noir. The feline superhero was the first to arrive, quickly followed by Jade Ninja and a few seconds later, Renard entered the park.

The ninja turtle noticed Abeille's absence. "Where's Abeille?"

Cat Noir was about to say, "I don't know", but Ladybug raised her finger and answered, "Her civilian form is among the many victims of Simon Says."

"She's been hypnotized in her normal form." Renard sighed. "I guess I can't blame her for that..."

Cat Noir looked around, trying to find the akumatized villain. "So where is Simon Says?"

He entered the park with his servants by his side. "Right here! Tell me where Marinette is and I won't have to hurt you!"

"You're too late, Simon! Marinette's already run off to a safe place! You'll never find her!" Ladybug proclaimed.

"Well then, back to the original objective; taking your Miraculouses!" He got out his cards. "Simon Says, get them!"

"Uh oh..." Renard muttered.

The servants charged towards them. Renard and Cat Noir spun their weapons around, defending them from incoming threats. Ladybug spun her yoyo, knocking down his servants while Jade Ninja extended his shield, trying to protect himself. Whenever servants approached him from the other side, he punched and kicked them away from himself.

"Simon Says, you'll hand your Miraculouses to me!"

He threw those cards at the superheroes, but they swiftly dodged his magical evil cards. He continued throwing more of them at the quartet.

Jade Ninja had completely covered himself with his shield as if he was an actual turtle who rejected into his shell. "Got any ideas?" he called out from under his shield.

Renard was fending off his servants with his flute.

"Cat Noir, use your Cataclysm on the ground!" Ladybug ordered.

"Got it! Cataclysm!"

He summoned the power of destruction to his right hand. He aimed it at the ground, causing a minor earthquake.

"Now jump!"

Renard and Cat Noir listened and did what she said. She jumped to avoid the earthquake. Simon Says and his servants were all rattled by the minor earthquake and they fell to the ground. Jade's shield vibrated heavily, banging against his head. It retracted to its default size. Unfortunately, Jade Ninja was disoriented as a result. Ladybug grabbed his card deck and ripped cards until she found the akuma. She purified it and everything went back to normal. Well, everything except Jade being disoriented.

"I'll take him back to his home. His folks are probably wondering where he is."

Cat Noir grabbed Jade's arm and helped him up. Using his staff, he propelled them forward to Nino's place.

"Cat, why are you helping me?" Jade asked.

"You're my friend, Jade. Also, you kinda banged your head on your shield trying to defend yourself."

"How was I supposed to know that you were going to use Cataclysm? Also, I didn't even think it could be used on the bare uncovered ground!" Jade Ninja retorted.

"It's alright. You're new, so I'll cut you some slack. Just try to get some rest."

"Thanks dude."

He led Jade to his bed. "Here we are."

"Thanks man, whoever you are under the mask."

Cat Noir went out the window and returned to the mansion. Numerous weeks later, a few days before school was to start, Adrien decided to help Marinette if she needed a model for fashion designing. He saw her looking at a picture of herself and her parents.

"You really miss them, don't you?"

She looked at him, turned away and sighed. "Not only that, I feel bad about lying to them."

"Lying? How have you been lying to them?"

"I told them that I was living at Alya's place instead of yours, and I keep having to make excuses for why I can't see them."

Adrien looked at her curiously like a cat. "How close are your parents to finishing the bakery?"

"They're almost done with the store, although it'll take much longer to repair the residence and refurbish the entire place." She sighed. "They also don't know that we're dating, and despite the importance of secret keeping, I'm also feeling bad about having to hide that I'm Ladybug from them. Should I tell them? What should I say to them?" She looked at her boyfriend. "Don't get me wrong, it's a dream come true living alongside my one true love and getting fashion tips from my role model Gabriel, but..."

"You're feeling homesick." She turned to him. "The way you feel right now is similar to how I felt after mom disappeared. Although my family is now finally together, yours seems to be drifting." He thought to himself silently for a moment. "How about, some time in the near future, the four of us go to Cafe Blanc and catch up over a meal?"

"I like that idea. I don't have to tell them I'm Ladybug, but if tell them everything else, I'll feel better about all this."

She felt bad about hiding that detail from him, but she tried to dismiss it.

 _Hawkmoth couldn't possibly be after me, right?_

If only she had known just how wrong she was.


	6. Of Lies and Fake Flowers

Author's Notes:

-Wow. I'm surprised by the lack of recognition. Is this a sequel that no one asked for or is everyone but me watching season 2 somehow?

Anyway, moving on...

It was the first day of school, in the middle of August. A young girl with brown hair was looking to sit next to Marinette. The bluenette tapped on the young lady's shoulder to get her attention.

"Um, excuse me, but I'm saving this seat for my friend Adrien. You probably know who he is."

The young lady hesitated. She looked very confused. "Uh... Who's Adrien?" she asked.

Had it not been for Marinette not knowing who Adrien was a year ago, she would have either laughed at her or teased her. But considering that she didn't know who Adrien was, she decided not to say anything.

"It's alright, you can sit behind me." Nino said.

Marinette tuned out Nino's conversation with the new girl. A week had passed, Marinette was on her way to Cafe Blanc to figure out where she would be meeting her parents at the end of the month.

She smiled. "Looks like a pretty nice place."

"Psst. Marinette, over here!" a voice whispered. She turned towards the alley and found Cat Noir. He retreated further into the alley and Marinette followed him.

"Cat Noir. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to busy until three o'clock."

He hesitated. "I.. I got off early."

Marinette looked at Cat Noir skeptically. "You snuck away from them, didn't you?"

He looked guilty. "Yes, I did."

"You sly, agile cat." Marinette chuckled. "So what brings you here?"

"I got a surprise for you." He got out a red blindfold. "First I need you to put on this blindfold."

She looked at him. "Any reason?"

"I'm taking you to a special place. All you need are yourself and your earrings." He looked at her adoringly.

Marinette didn't pay attention to his last line and put on the blindfold.

 _Oh, you gullible young girl. You're even more foolish than I thought._ the boy in the black cat suit thought.

A light mask formed around his eyes. "Excellent work, Copycat." Hawkmoth congratulated. "Now bring her to the Notre Dame."

Copycat took her hand and they started to walk towards the church.

Meanwhile, Adrien Agreste, the real deal, was unaware of what was happening. He was at the park for a photoshoot. Unlike many other photoshoots, his parents were with him. They sat on a nearby bench, enjoying the summer day.

Gabriel smiled. "I must say, it's quite a lovely day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. It feels like nothing could go wrong."

Terra looked about 45 degrees to the left and gasped. "Uh, Gabriel..."

She pointed at a Cat Noir doppelganger leading a blind-folded Marinette to who knows where.

"Wait, if Adrien's here then... Oh no..." He turned to the photographer. "Photoshoot is cancelled. Take your things and leave immediately."

Vincent, the photographer, looked confused but complied with the order. Adrien looked at his father, sad and concerned. "What's the matter? Did something come up at work?"

The two pointed to Copycat with Marinette. Adrien gasped. "Another Cat Noir? But that's not me! It has to be a trick! Oh wait, Renard would never use his illusions to deceive others." He ran behind the nearest tree and Plagg came out from under his vest. "That Copycat is going to pay! Plagg, claws out!"

He transformed into Cat Noir and ran after Copycat, who was leading Marinette towards the Notre Dame. He was so close. Just one more street and Hawkmoth would get what he wanted.

"Leave her alone, you imposter!" Cat Noir commanded.

The small audience around him gasped and started murmuring. Copycat retorted. "You think you're the real Cat Noir? Ha! You're just a mere imposter, a Copycat!"

Cat Noir growled and charged towards Copycat. They fought each other with their staves as if they were swords. Marinette took off her blindfold and saw two Cat Noirs fighting each other. "Cat Noir? What's going on?!"

"The cat who blind-folded you is Copycat!"

He was knocked down. Marinette quickly ran away from the scene. The fight raged on.

"How are we supposed to tell which one's real?" a spectator asked.

"This has to be a trick!" another stated.

"Hold it!" a voice shouted.

The two stopped fighting as Renard entered the area. "This is not a trick." He walked towards Copycat. "The villain that longtime superhero Cat Noir fights is an imposter whom we don't know very much of." He got out his flute and shot an orange energy ball at him who was rammed into a black car as a result.

He stuttered. "But... but how could you see through my ruse?"

"I'm a fox and a master of deception. I know a lie when I see one."

Soon enough, Ladybug appeared. She lassoed up Copycat.

"Perfect timing, my lady." Cat Noir smiled.

"Once Marinette had told me that Copycat tricked her, I came here as soon as possible."

She spun him around and kicked him into the car. She looked for a photo of herself, which she thought would be the akumatized object, but it seemed he didn't have it.

"Where in the world is that akumatized object?" Cat Noir asked.

Renard found a photo with a purple rim, but it wasn't Ladybug. Ladybug ripped it up, purified the akuma and everything was normal. Only after the crowd dispersed and Renard and Cat left, Ladybug began to wonder, _Why is Hawkmoth after my civilian identity?_

The following day, while waiting for Ms. Mendeleiev to hand back their tests (she was behind in grading them), Adrien and his classmates were discussing the topic of Hawkmoth's intentions. Everyone was speaking (except for Zoe, who was listening to music.)

"Why does Hawkmoth even want the Miraculouses in the first place?" Kim asked.

"That's what I've been trying to figure out." Max commented.

"What I'd like to know is why Marinette is being targeted so much." Alya commented.

Juleka raised her eyebrows. "She's being targeted?"

"Yeah. I didn't realize it until Copycat's return, but it seems Hawkmoth is bent on targeting Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed.

"But only one villain is known to have gone after her as far as I can tell." Rose added.

"Actually," Marinette began, rubbing her arm akwardly. "Simon Says targeted me as well."

The entire class (save for Zoe who wasn't paying attention) gasped. Nino looked at her questionably. "And you didn't tell us this earlier because..?"

"I didn't want to scare you." Marinette answered. "I'm sure that this war will be over soon. Hawkmoth's on his last legs."

"You do make a point there." Mylene said.

More time had passed, and it was September 30th. Of course, the akumatized special of the month was a person who had already been akumatized once before. It had been two months since school started, and four months since she and Adrien gained new allies in the Miraculous Civil War. After she ate lunch, she slowly made her way down to the box office.

Adrien had just arrived at the box office. A young girl with a crown of fake flowers was already waiting for him. She wore a pink dress with heels to match and she held a red rose in her right hand.

Adrien was startled. "Zoe? What are you doing here?"

"Ah, my sweet Adrien, you're finally here!" Adrien looked at her in confusion. She threw her arms around him. "Yes, yes, I'll be your girlfriend!"

"What? You got it all..."

"Oh shush now. You sent me that letter. You can't deny it."

"Hey you!" Marinette shouted. She glared at her with extreme hatred. "Get away from my boyfriend!"

Zoe gasped. "You.. Your boyfriend?!"

"How could you have not known that he was mine?! You really thought Adrien Agreste was single?! You are such a fool!"

"Marinette..." he tried to say, but he was ignored.

She marched up to Zoe. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Alya was right! You are a dumb, blind, oblivious fool! You don't deserve your friends or any kind of love!"

She yanked off Zoe's crown of flowers off her head and tore it into pieces. She gasped in horror as the destroyed fake flowers flew to the ground. She dropped her rose, fell to her knees and started crying. She grabbed her boyfriend's hand and took him with her.

"Come on, Adrien. Let's get out of here."

He wanted to tell her that what she had done was wrong, but he couldn't find the right words to say. They had about five minutes before they went to their math class with Ms. Mendeleiev. Suddenly, Marinette felt a cold chill creep down her spine.

"Are you okay?" Adrien asked.

"It's nothing." she answered. "Let's go."

She tried to dismiss it, but deep down, she knew something was wrong. But what was it?


	7. A Bleeding Heart

It was about ten minutes into the lesson that Marinette felt cold chills again.

Adrien whispered, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." she answered. "It least, that's what I'd like to believe."

Ms. Mendeleiev turned in her direction. "Is there a problem?"

"Well... I don't know why... but... I can't help but have a feeling that something..."

Nathaniel noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "Marinette, behind..!"

Suddenly a vine grabbed Marinette by the ankle. She screamed as she was dragged out of the classroom and into the air. Adrien ran after her and from the railing, saw a young woman floating in midair, glowing with green energy all around her. She was in a rose shaped dress with a green top. The skirt was mostly pink with a red hem to represent rose petals. She wore bright green gloves that extended past her elbows. A crown of roses was seen in her hair, which was now waist-length and filled with many green streaks. While most of the roses were red, one of them was black with hints of purple.

Marinette looked up and saw her captor. "Who are you?"

The akumatized villain looked at her scornfully. "Really? You don't remember the name of the person you hurt?!"

Nino joined Adrien on the railing, saw the akumatized villain and gasped. "Zoe?"

"The name's Flora now! And you will all pay for what you've done! Starting with this one!" Using her magic, she made three vines with thorns appear and they attacked Marinette. They pricked her, cutting through several layers of her skin, and she began to bleed. Adrien ran outside the school.

"We got high trouble! Plagg, claws out!"

He transformed and ran back into the building, only to find Nino being thrown into the wall by Flora's vines. He was knocked out instantly.

"Leave her alone, you witch!"

She scoffed. "I'm not a witch, I'm an enchantress!" She threw several thorns at him. After dodging them all, he charged at her. "Rose wind gust!" She threw a huge gust of wind with rose petals in it, sending him flying out the door.

"You're the one who hurt me the most, Marinette! You will pay with your life!"

A purple light mask appeared around her eyes. "Hold it! You're not supposed to kill her! You're supposed to bring her to me!"

"What? You want her alive?! What for?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Give me a reason!"

"I'm the one who gave you your power, and I can easily take it from you!"

Flora felt her arm twist in pain. She screamed in agony. "Ow! OW! Okay, I get it! Stop, stop, STOP!" She panted. "Okay, you get her alive, but I'm still torturing her." The light mask vanished. "But first, to be sure no one interferes with my plan."

Marinette closed her eyes. She heard various noises, but she drifted in and out of consciousness and had no idea what happened to her classmates. A few minutes later, she returned. "Alright. Where do I take her?"

Her light mask shone again as Hawkmoth answered, "Hmm. Take her to Temple IV apartment complex. I'll take her from there."

The light mask vanished as she and Marinette floated upwards and out of the school. Cat Noir quickly pursued them. She quickly flew across the sky, using her magic to hold Marinette, who was trapped within her vines. Cat Noir threw his staff at Flora, but he swiftly dodged it. She threw thorns at him only to dodge.

"You'll never stop me from saving her!"

"Watch me." She tangled him up in thorns.

"No!"

"Bye-bye kitty." She turned off and continued on her path. He detransformed.

Before he could say anything, Adrien ordered, "Plagg, help untangle me!"

He obeyed Adrien's command. Meanwhile, Flora had reached the Temple IV Paris Apartments, holding Marinette in her arms.

"Excellent. You have her." Hawkmoth said. He looked at her closely. She was bleeding from her left cheek, both of her arms and right leg. She had several bruises and cuts on her body. Her clothes were stained with blood. "Is she dead?"

"She's alive, but barely. She fainted shortly after I stopped Cat Noir from following me." She heard the sound of heavy footsteps and fast breathing. Cat Noir had returned. He had found the building and was about to ascend the apartment complex. "You better get your prize out of here. I've got this." As he climbed towards her, she charged with purple energy. "Deadly Nightshade!"

She threw a ball of purple colored energy towards him. The attack hit him, knocking him to the ground. He got up as Flora jumped down, but he was dizzy and he was then knocked to the ground with a kick to the knee and one to the stomach. His head hurt, he felt like he was spinning, and his vision blurred.

"Cat Noir! NO!"

That scream was from Marinette, and it was the last thing he heard before he fell into a coma.

Meanwhile, in Hawkmoth's lair, the Moth Miraculous wielder carried an unconscious Marinette into his lair. He set her down, chained up her wrists and her ankles, and lit an oil lamp, creating a flame. Slowly, Marinette woke up.

"Uh... Oh, my head..." She took a closer look at her surroundings and saw Hawkmoth smirking. "Hawkmoth!"

She got up and ran towards him, only to be stopped by the chains holding her back. "Ah, you're awake. You survived Flora's wrath. Such a pity. Death would be better fate for you than what is to come."

Marinette glared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you get it? I'm one step closer to victory now that you're in my clutches!"

"Let me go, Hawkmoth! I don't have anything you want!"

"Don't lie to me, Marinette." He approached her and whispered into her ear, "Or should I say, Ladybug."

She gasped and Hawkmoth had taken the earrings. Then he opened her purse, only to find Tikki angrily attacking him. He grabbed her.

"How are you even going to wear those earrings? You don't have your ears pierced." the kwami retorted.

"You're right, but you know, there is more than one way to wear a Miraculous."

He threw Tikki into a lantern, which she tried to phase out of, but it didn't work. "Hey, what is this?!"

"Specially designed trap."

He took one of the earrings and placed it onto the lower part of his right sleeve. "He's using them as cuff-links? No fair!" Tikki complained. He did the same for the left side, then grabbed Tikki.

He looked at the kwami. "Who are you?"

"Tikki. Why does it matter? I'll never obey the likes of you!"

"Silly kwami, you don't have a choice! My Miraculous, my rules! Tikki, black spots, appear!"

Tikki was sucked into the Ladybug Miraculous against her own will. Marinette exclaimed, "Tikki!"

The young heroine was helpless to watch as Hawkmoth's new form began to show. His pants added ladybug designs to the upper half and black spots could be seen across the sleeves of his shirt. He also got a ladybug themed helmet, similar to that of a samurai's. She couldn't push down the feelings of hopelessness and failure, and started crying. Hawkmoth smirked. "Soon Cat Noir will come right here, and his Miraculous will be mine!"

He laughed evilly. At the same time, Cat Noir woke up in the hospital. He moaned and put his hand to his head. "Ow... Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital. Hopital Saint-Louis to be exact."

"The hospital?" He widened his eyes. "Where's Marinette?!"

Jade Ninja nodded sadly. "By the time we arrived, it was all but too late. Marinette was gone and Flora was the only one there."

"Don't worry, Cat." Renard tried to reassure him. "Me and Abeille put Flora in her place." Cat Noir started crying, much to his friends' confusion. "Cat Noir?"

"I... I failed. I promised that I would protect her. Now that I've failed, I can't help but feel shame and sorrow."

"I don't even get it. What did Hawkmoth want from Marinette anyway?" Renard asked his team.

Jade answered, "I thought it was because she contributed in the downfall of Queen Bee and Volpina."

Abeille nodded. "That is the most common theory I've heard of, but it was never confirmed." Cat Noir widened his eyebrows briefly, but nobody noticed. He got up from the bed. "Where are you going? And where's Adrien?"

"I have to make things right. And Adrien went back to his home."

He left the hospital. He realized the reason why Marinette was targeted by Hawkmoth, but he realized it all too late. He went back to his home, and he detransformed. His father was there.

"Adrien?" Gabriel asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Dad, I need you to get more Camembert. Plagg's gonna need it. I got bad news."

His face became really tense. "Oh no, what happened?"


	8. Finding the Lost Lady

The following day, Adrien dropped out of school and his fencing lessons. He got his backpack and put it on the desk. He got out a notebook, a pencil, and began to write. He got on the computer and typed in the search box, _List of deserted areas in Paris_. The search came up with a lot of results.

Some of the many villages, places or other locations within or nearby Paris including, but not limited to, Goussainville, the Rothschild Castle, Le Fort du Buc, L'abbatoir de la Nausee, Le Sanatorium de Langue, Petit Ceinture, the Metro de Croix-Rouge and the Catacombs.

He thought those could all be possible locations. He tried to remember what Chloe had said during her trial about where she and Lila had met up with Hawkmoth. Before she explained the final battle, she was explaining how she and Lila kept in touch with Hawkmoth.

"If you never found his secret lair, as you claim, how did you communicate with him?" Adolphus asked.

"Well, your honor, when we transformed, we got these communicators that we used to speak with each other and our boss. In some cases, we met up with him in person." she answered.

"Where have you guys met him face to face?"

"In various locations. Sometimes it was the Eiffel Tower, one time it was the Notre Dame, another time it was at Francoise Dupont High School. But for the most part, we communicated through the means of videochat."

His flashback ended. He continued the list until he got every possible hiding place down on that list. Then he thought of another thing; should he tell Marinette's parents? They deserved to know the truth. But could they handle it? Or would they break down? Would they go into denial? He asked his father for advice on the situation at hand.

"Bear in mind, Adrien, they may not react too well to all of this." Gabriel said.

"You do you have a point. Mom didn't take it too well when she found out you were Le Paon."

"Part of that was because she was supposed to get the Peacock Miraculous." He briefly thought to himself before speaking again. "You've met her parents at least once. How strict are they?"

"Not very. She told me they grounded her once because she was absent from class, obviously not being aware that she was saving the day as Ladybug. It was actually around the time of Simon Says' attack. Other than that, they're not too harsh on her. "

"Hmm. She was lucky not to get caught by her parents." He sighed.

"Although... what do I say to them?"

"Are you sure you should be doing this? Technically speaking, you would be going behind your girlfriend's back."

Adrien looked at the ground sadly. "I know, but..." He sighed and looked at his Miraculous. "Assuming we're still facing Hawkmoth or another big powerful threat by the time I've rescued her, her parents would be overprotective, which would make it harder for her to do her job. It..." He hesitated as Terra entered the room. "it just seems like the right thing to do."

"If you do decide to tell them, bear in mind that the way you covey the message will make a difference." Terra stated.

"You have a good point there." he said to himself.

After some internal debate with himself, and his kwami, he had finally made his decision. He was going to tell Marinette's parents.

"I can only hope that Marinette won't be too angry with me." the blond-haired model said. "Plagg, claws out!"

He transformed into Cat Noir and left for Marinette's bakery. He knew the path all too well. When he finally got there, he could see the construction workers trying to repair the exterior area that was Marinette's room. He had entered the store. The smell of pastries hit his nostrils hard. He smelled macaroons, clafoutis and a thousand other pastries, many of which he couldn't identify. Most of all, he smelled croissants. He loved croissants. He almost lost sense of why he was here.

Cat Noir looked at Marinette's parents. "Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, I need to speak with you. Do you have a moment of spare time?"

"Yes, we were just about to close up shop." Sabrine answered.

"What is it?" Tom asked.

"Well, there's something important I must speak with you about. It's about your daughter. Can you keep a secret or two?"

They nodded in agreement. Sabine looked at Tom before turning back to Cat Noir. "Of course."

She turned the sign from closed to open and turned back to face Cat Noir.

"Well, I don't know if anyone ever told you this, but, prior to Marinette's capture, Hawkmoth was telling his akumatized villains to target Marinette. I didn't realize the true reason for this intention until it was all but too late. I wish there was an easier way to say it, but there isn't, so I just have to tell you the harsh truth." He breathed in deeply, then exhaled before he spoke again. "Your daughter, Marinette Dupain-Cheng... is Ladybug."

They gasped. Sabine looked like she was about to cry. "All... all this time... Marinette was Ladybug? And she never even told us?"

Tom widened his eyes. "That explains everything. All the absences, the occasional minor grade slip, everything..."

She felt her eyes begin to tear up. "But why would she not tell us?"

"Because when you're a superhero, you have to keep your identity hidden to prevent your enemies from finding you."

Tom looked at the superhero curiously. "Even your loved ones?"

"Especially your loved ones." He looked at them with sorrow and honesty. "Truth be told, I was never supposed to know who Ladybug was behind the mask. I was just smart enough to figure it out on my own. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth figured it out too, and now he has Ladybug's Miraculous." He sniffed up. "And it's all my fault."

"Cat Noir... Why do you blame yourself?"

"Because, I never told anyone this, but, a long time ago, long before I found out she was Ladybug, I promised to protect Marinette from evil. At the time, I was up against the Evillustrator, a boy she had to go on a date with to in order to prevent him from going after Chloe Bourgeois for revenge. I had promised to protect Marinette, and every time she needed my help, I was able to save her. Until now. I feel horrible for what happened. Which is why I am making this promise to you; I will not stop searching. I'll never give up looking. I will not rest until I find her and bring her back home safely."

"Oh.. Cat.." Sabine sobbed and covered her eyes with her hands. "Please... bring her back to us."

"I will." He looked around. "I know you guys are already closed for the day, but, do you mind if I buy a dozen croissants?"

Tom looked at him strangely. "Regular or chocolate filled?"

He bought 12 of each. He had more croissants than he knew what to do with. He knew that if his father caught him with these, he'd be lectured for three hours, but he didn't care. After he made his purchase, he went to the nearest rooftop and detransformed.

"Seriously, why did you buy two dozen of these pastries? That cost you 36 euros!" Plagg berated.

"I don't care. It was worth every cent." Adrien took a bite of a chocolate filled croissant. "Not only is their food delicious, they're a bakery who's short one worker who's trying to get back on their feet. They need all the help and support they can get."

He swallowed then opened the box and looked at the divider they provided him. The plain croissants were on the left side of the box while the chocolate filled ones were on the right side. He handed a plain croissant to Plagg, who started to nibble on it. He got out the list of possible locations.

"Okay, first place on our list; Gousainville. Let's get going."

Adrien was confident that he'd find Marinette quickly. Of course, he had no idea how wrong he'd be.


	9. Losing Everything

Author's Notes:

-Normally, I wouldn't do this, but since the recognition for this fanfic is hardly getting anywhere, you get two chapters in one day. We're at the end of Cat Noir's arc. Who will tell the tale next? Stay tuned to find out.

Let's continue!

Cat Noir thought that finding Marinette was going to be easy. Of course, he had no idea just how wrong he was. First stop; Goussainville. An abandoned city inside of Paris. He had to be sure he was in the right place, since there was a nearby town named Goussainville that was active. Rather confusing, right? He walked down the streets of cobblestone until he eventually found a large mansion in the center of this ghostown. It was said to once have a beautiful and well-maintained garden, but now there was a field of who-knows-what growing there. The roof was gone, there was no floor and many of the windows were missing or broken.

 _Could Hawkmoth really be hiding here?_ Cat Noir thought to himself.

 _I somehow doubt it, but it can't hurt to_ _look._ Plagg answered.

He went up to the door and scanned the area. There was nothing there. All the remaining furniture had been ruined by time and the elements of nature. He went up the stairs, which soon crumbled after he climbed up them.

 _Something tells me he's not here._

 _Gee, what was your first guess?_

He ignored Plagg's sarcasm and continued looking in Goussainville by going to the Goussainville Church of St. Paul and St. Peter. He heard that it was closed to the public, but if Hawkmoth was ignoring the rules, he had to as well. He entered the church through a broken window and searched every nook and cranny. He found... nothing. After searching the rest of Goussainville, which took the rest of the day, he gave up and went back home. Adrien caught up on schoolwork, ate a small dinner and then he dropped out of his photoshoots.

After visiting other locations last week, Cat Noir went to Le Fort du Buc, an abandoned fort nearby the Versailles Palace. Entry to the public was absolutely forbidden, but he didn't care. He also thought that this was one of the most likely places Hawkmoth would be hiding. He broke in and started exploring the forbidden fortress. He eventually found a golden-colored room with a few lights in it. He began to smile to himself. Maybe Hawkmoth (and Marinette) was here?

He went down the stairs and explored the deepest areas of this place. He found nothing except an artist, who was down there painting. He interrogated him, and forced him to remove his clothes down to his boxers. He was not Hawkmoth and the man slapped Cat Noir after it was all said and done.

"I could have sworn he was here..." Cat Noir muttered.

After that, he went to Le Sanatorium de Langue. He failed and gave up his Chinese lessons. L'abbatoir de la Nausee; failure. He gave up his piano lessons. After having recently the Rothschild Castle, he stood on a deserted rooftop in Paris. He had been searching for a month, without any success.

"I don't understand... Why can't I find her?" he asked the empty air.

"How was I supposed to know that's where the akuma was?!" he heard a feminine voice scream from afar.

"You idiot! Akumatized objects are always the villain's main weapon!" a masculine voice retorted.

That response came from Renard. Abeille glared at him. "You're wrong! It's usually a weapon, but not always. Have you not heard of the Gamer? Antibug? Kung Food?!"

"Guys, knock it off!" Jade interrupted.

Abeille's Miraculous beeped again. He gasped upon seeing his former teammates arguing among themselves.

"You should have known better!"

"We were about to be vanquished! What did you expect me to do?"

Jade yelled, "Knock it off you two!"

His cries were ignored, much to Cat Noir's dismay.

 _What are they even arguing about?_ he thought.

He missed part of Abeille's comment. "... for every fault!"

"I'm trying to protect the city! With the Lucky Duo gone, there's no room for error!"

He felt guilty. He had forgotten about the city in his hunt for Hawkmoth/search for Marinette.

 _This is all my fault! Should I say something?! What do I do?!_

"Until my time runs out!"

 _Why are they fighting?!  
_

Abeille's comb lost another point, derailing his train of thought.

"You can't do anything right! Ladybug made the wrong choice!"

Abeille felt her anger reaching her boiling point. "Shut up! I never want to see either of you again!"

Cat Noir felt himself shaking in fear. He was paralyzed. If he entered the scene, would he make things better? Or would they only get worse? Renard looked at his black and yellow dressed co-worker. "You can't lie. You know I'm right. You don't belong here on the team! You don't deserve your Miraculous!"

That's when Abeille snapped. "I said, 'Shut the hell up!'"

She slapped Renard in the face. Hard. Cat Noir gasped along with the nearby spectators. Abeille looked at them in terror as her Miraculous beeped again. Cat Noir, (and the other heroes) knew she only had one minute left. She ran away crying, pushing innocent civilians out of the way as she ran west.

Jade glared at Renard angrily. "Nice going, Renard!"

Renard looked at Jade as if he was crazy. "What? I'm only being honest."

"With the Lucky Duo M.I.A, we need all the help we can get! And now Abeille's left us behind!"

Once again, Cat Noir felt guilty. "So what? You're the one in charge of the group! It's your fault she left."

"My fault? You're the one always criticizing her! You're nothing but a jerk!"

He scoffed. "What?! I am not a jerk!"

"You're really horrible! I can't stand working with you and Abeille arguing 24/7!"

"If I'm so horrible, then maybe I should leave too. I don't need you punks!"

Renard stormed off, heading east.

"Fine!" Jade Ninja yelled. "With friends like you, who needs... enemies?"

Cat Noir gasped as Jade's anger turned to sorrow. He went south as the crowd dispersed. Cat Noir felt horrible.

Then he realized he could have done something to stop them.

 _I should have told them the truth, about why I've been gone. What happened to Ladybug as a result of Marinette being kidnapped without revealing her secret identity. But instead, I'm still trapped in my own dark web of lies._

After traveling north, he was on top of the Notre Dame. Every place on his list had been crossed out. In a separate column, titled, _Places Hawkmoth couldn't be,_ read, _Francois Dupont, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and any nearby buildings...  
_

Cat Noir was beyond exhausted. He hadn't slept in the last three days, and his hope was beginning to shatter. "I've given up everything to try and find her. Where could Hawkmoth and Marinette be? I feel like I'm so close yet so far..." He closed his eyes only for them to rapidly open up again. He sighed. "Come on Adrien, you need to get home."

He jumped off the rooftop of the Notre Dame and went back home. If only he knew just how right he was.


	10. A Fragile Flower

Nino Lahiffe never thought he'd be a Miraculous wielder. It had been only a few days after school had ended, and he got all A's on his report card. To kick off the summer season, he decided to host an all nighter. In this all nighter, he traditionally stayed up til the crack of drawn, drank soda, ate junk food and played video/computer games. Now this wasn't all he did, but it was most of what he did. He did have good reason to celebrate though. Getting all A's had been one of his life's ambitions and he had just achieved it for the first time ever. After partying for several hours, the young boy fell asleep at 5:30am, just as the sun began to rise.

He eventually woke up past noon. He groaned groggily. He got out of bed, readjusted his glasses (which he forgot to take off) and looked at the time. The red letters on his alarm clock read _12:45_. He then noticed a black octagonal box with red designs on it.

"What's this doing here?" he asked himself.

He opened the box, and his eyes were briefly blinded by a bright green light. He saw a green sphere for a moment before it faded, leaving a small green floating creature in its place. The creature looked at Nino amusingly.

"Woah. This is crazy. This must be a prank."

"This is not a prank." the creature said.

Nino blinked his eyeballs twice. "The turtle is talking."

"You stayed up too late, didn't you?" Nino nodded. "I can tell. You've got dark dark circles under your eyes and you look weary."

"Who... who are you?"

"I'm..."

A knock on the door was heard. Someone attempted to open it, but fortunately for the creature's sake, it was locked. "Nino! Are you awake?" his mother asked from the other side of the door. "The new guest will be here in less than five minutes!"

"Okay, I'll be out in a few!"

He scrambled, looking for a fresh set of clothes. He threw off his jeans and got into a pair of capris. He took off his shirt and traded it for a green one. "I know you're under a time limit, so I'll make this quick. My name's Wayzz, and I'm a kwami. You're the next Turtle Miraculous wielder."

"Turtle Miraculous?"

He looked at the box. It contained a black thread bracelet with a large green stone turtle on it. "Me? A... a superhero? This is so crazy..." He put on the bracelet, tightening it around his left wrist.

Wayzz said, "I'll explain everything later. Now go. Your family is waiting for you."

"Where are you gonna hide?" Nino put his hat on.

"I'll hide under your hat."

He flew under Nino's cap and he went out the door. He found his family standing in the living room. He turned to his mother. "I'm not too late, am I?"

"Oh, you're right on time. Our new guest has just arrived."

He looked at the new visitor. She was a girl with long brown hair the color of soil that reached to her waist and had eyes as green as grass. She wore a pair of green jeans, a pink sleeveless top and a green vest that extended to her elbows. On her feet, she wore pink open-toed heels. If you looked closely at her feet, you could see her toenails were painted pink. On her head, she wore a crown of fake flowers of multiple with a real violet entwined into it.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lahiffe. It's so nice to be here."

"Welcome to our home... Ms. Gardener."

She chuckled warmly. "Oh you're being too formal. I'm Zoe. Zoe Gardener."

"So, where are you from?" Leah asked.

"I'm from Sydney, Australia."

"Wow, must be pretty warm there." Mrs. Lahiffe commented.

She smiled. "Yeah, it is. It's nearby the Indian ocean, so we get a lot of nice weather there."

"Well, we're happy to have you staying here under our roof." He smiled and turned to his eldest son. "Nino, could you show our new resident to her room?"

"Alright then."

Nino led Zoe down the hall to where her room was. It was a small room with a bed in the upper right corner. The walls were orange and the carpet was a cream-colored white. The window a few feet from the door was covered by orange curtains. The bedspread was orange with a white trim.

"I'm surprised the room hasn't been cleared out of the previous owner's stuff." Zoe stated.

"Yeah, we left the room the same as it was when Lila was here. She was the previous foreign exchange student under our roof." Nino explained. "We were unsure if we would even get another foreign exchange student here."

"I see." She looked at the orange walls and mused to herself. "Not bad, but I'd like this room catered to my needs."

"That can easily be done." Nino got out a notepad and a pen. "State me your requests and we'll work together to get them done as soon as possible."

"Okay. First off all, I want the walls to be painted pink. I would also like a floral pattern on this side. Red roses. Pink curtains and floral bed sheet set." She motioned to the wall with the door that led to her room. "I would also like a few pots of soil, rose and sunflower seeds, an assortment of flowers and an orchid plant. I would like floral bedsheets and a small rose-shaped pillow. I hope this isn't too much of a tall order."

"You really like flowers don't you?" he asked as he finished writing.

"Yeah, I do. I love flowers, especially roses. I've always been down to Earth and hands on nature kind of girl. If I don't look after Mother Earth, who will?"

"You have a good point. I'll get those requests in and see what can and can't be done."

He took the list of room redesign requests to his father and then went to the hall of visitors. This small hallway that connected the living room to the doorways of his room and his parents' room displayed every single foreign exchange that stayed under their roof. The plaques displayed their name, picture, the day they arrived, the day they left, and the country and city they were from. Suddenly Zoe gasped in terror.

Zoe stuttered. "Who... who the heck is..."

"Okay, who's the idiot that forgot to set the image back to Lila's normal form?" Nino asked the empty air.

He pressed the red button on the top of the gold-colored plaque and the image of Volpina smirking was replaced with a picture of Lila smiling.

"Who... who was that girl? And why was she wearing a fox costume with an evil smirk on her face?" Zoe asked.

"Her name is Lila Rossi. She's the second most recent foreign exchange student to live under this roof, and that form you just saw is Volpina, her akumatized villain self and her supervillain ego after obtaining the Fox Miraculous. I'm surprised you didn't recognize her."

"Why would I? I've never seen her before."

He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Haven't you seen images of her? Or read news articles about her and her former cohort Queen Bee?"

"I haven't read a news article in two years." she stated flatly.

Nino stood there, his mouth hung wide open. He stuttered for a few moments before slapping himself back into reality. "Really?" She nodded. "How come?"

"Well, I've been home schooled all my life, so I occasionally read the news. But reading too many bad news articles made me really depressed so I decided to stop reading them. My emotional state has greatly improved since then. I've never had any reason to read the news, so I just don't."

 _She has no idea about Ladybug or Cat Noir. She doesn't know who Volpina and Queen Bee are. Worst of all, she doesn't know who Hawkmoth is, or why he's a threat._ the young boy thought to himself.

Suddenly a vision came to his mind. A silhouette of a young girl was holding a rose and crying. An akuma entered the rose and the vision ended. He couldn't help but think the girl in the vision looked very similar to Zoe. Unless... No.

 _That can't happen._ Nino thought to himself. _It won't. I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from akumatization. I'm not gonna let another innocent foreigner walk down the path of darkness, whether it be their own will or not!  
_

While he was panicking on the inside, he somehow managed to look calm on the exterior because Zoe asked him, "You still there?"

He shook his head. "Huh? Oh yeah. I zoned out. Sorry Zoe."

"It's fine. I'll be in Leah's room if you need to speak to me."

"Okay."

 _Oh boy..._ he thought to himself. _Being a Miraculous wielder and trying to protect an oblivious girl from akumatization. This is not going to be easy..._


	11. Getting Into Your Shell

It had been three hours after Zoe's arrival. Nino was back in his room with his kwami. He still couldn't believe that he had been chosen to become the next Turtle Miraculous wielder.

"So let me get this straight," Nino said. "Jade Sensei, aka Ling Xi Fu, was the great guardian for roughly a century and a half before his death at the age of 186. Because of his death, Ladybug took over his responsibility, which is why she kept the Turtle Miraculous for several weeks, and now you want me to take Jade Sensei's place as Turtle Miraculous wielder?

Wayzz nodded yes. "I know you've had a lot suddenly thrown at you, master, but I don't plan on trying to make this burden any harder than it already is."

"Oh, well, that's reassuring."

"Master, you needn't be afraid. You have already proven yourself that you're worthy of wielding a Miraculous."

He looked at the Miraculous, kept tight around his left wrist. "So, what am I to do?"

"Just say 'Wayzz, scales on.'"

"Well, okay." He extended his left arm. "Wayzz, scales on!"

Wayzz entered the bracelet, but even his reassurance couldn't prepare him for his first transformation. Green energy swarmed him and found a mask forming over his eyes. He spun as a disk like shield formed on his back. He fell onto his bed.

 _Woah. Are you okay?_

"Wayzz? Are you... in my head?"

 _Relax Master. This is natural. I won't be speaking to you every second, but I can guide you and help you figure out how to use your powers and your new shield._

He got up and saw his green jumpsuit and mask in a mirror along with a shield strapped to his back. _New shield?  
_

 _Turtle Miraculous wielders have always had some sort of circular weapon that they have been able to use as a shield. For example, the previous owner, Ling Xi Fu, who hailed from China, used a green Chinese umbrella both for offense and defense._

"So, what do I do?" he asked aloud.

 _First, you need to sneak out of the house. Use that window over there and then climb until you reach the roof._

Nino thought it was wrong to sneak out, but he did so anyway. Using his arms, he climbed up to the fire escape then ran up to the roof.

"Okay, now what?"

 _Before we get too much into your powers and weapon, you must be aware of your enhanced abilities while you're transformed. As a Miraculous wielder, you acquire enhanced speed, strength, agility, less susceptibility to pain and in your case, perfect vision. Now bear in mind that although you are more powerful, you're not invincible."_

"Okay. And I was wondering where my glasses went."

 _Now first things first. I want you to jump from this rooftop to the one on your left._

"Jump, are you crazy?!"

 _It'll be alright. You can do it. Even if you fall the first time you'll get it eventually and you won't break any bones._

 _I can't believe I'm doing this._

He ran forth.

 _Jump!_

He jumped from his rooftop to another one.

 _Nicely done! Now see if you can't do it again._

The turtle superhero smiled to himself. Using his own judgement, he jumped at the right moment from one rooftop to another.

 _There you go! That's it!_

 _Well, this all seems crazy, but I guess that's ok._

 _Alright then, master. Now for the shield. Yours is significantly different from what Jade Sensei used. Your shield can expand as much as you will it to. It'll be no smaller than a dinner plate and no larger than the face of a bus. Try it out._

He got out his shield and held it with the straps on the back of it. He thought of it expanding. Soon it covered his entire body as if the shield him from a large proton cannon blast. He nearly got hit by the edge of the shield as it expanded.

 _Yeah, I would recommend not holding that extremely close if you're going to expand your shield size greatly. Try setting it back to its default size._

Nino thought about his shield returning to normal and it returned to its default size.

 _Now throw your shield on the ground._

Confused, he did so. He found his shield floating a few inches off the ground.

 _Now get on and coast down._

He got on and found himself levitating on it.

"Woah, this is totally crazy!"

 _Keep your balance!_

He kept his footing but he found it hard to keep his body weight balanced on his shield. He couldn't believe it was strong enough to hold him.

 _Now think of the direction in which you want to go in. Think of it like surfing!_

 _You do realize I've never been surfing before, right?_

 _What about skateboarding then?_

 _If skateboards could fly that is..._

He continued moving. He felt nervous yet confident. So restrained yet so free. Soon the nervousness and restraint disappeared, and all he felt was confidence and freedom. He followed Wayzz's directions as he said them in his head.

 _Left, right. Pro tip; You could also use it to glade across water as if you were walking on it._

He soared around the city. He glided across the Seine and felt so happy. Eventually his hoverboarding sessions ended and he had his shield strapped to his back.

 _Now for powers. Your Miraculous has the ability to use Time Crawl, a power that slows down time around an object or person. You can use this ability up to five times before you run of power. Once you run out of power, a five minute timer will begin. When that timer runs out, you'll automatically detransform back to your civilian self._

"Okay, that seems simple enough."

 _If there were any moving objects around you, I'd suggest we'd test it out, but so far I'm not seeing any..._

Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alya on the ground below him. She was riding a bike and she came to a stop. She got out her phone and took a picture.

 _If you want, you can use your powers on her._

 _Isn't that kinda cruel?_

 _I don't think so. It won't kill or hurt her. Do you like her?_

Nino didn't respond. "Time Crawl!" He fired a green beam of energy at Alya after she dropped her phone. She bent down to pick it up and the beam missed her, making it end up in the Seine River, which started to flow more slowly. "Apparently, it affects forces of nature too."

Alya, unaware of what just happened, got back on her bike and pedaled off.

"Hey Wayzz?"

 _Yes?_

 _I have two questions. One, do I have to have the same name as my predecessor?_

 _No, you don't. You can give your hero self whatever name you want. And two?_

 _Are you really sure I'm up for this?_

 _I know you can do this. Just give it time. You'll know what to do when the time comes._

 _If you say so, little dude._

 _So what will you call yourself?_

 _Well my predecessor called himself Jade Sensei, so I must be Jade Ninja._

With this in mind, he returned to his home. Three days later, he was in his room, looking at the Ladyblog. It was about three in the afternoon. Looking at his computer screen, he saw numerous videos including a livestream called _The Return of the Dark Knight_. He clicked on it and it started showing Darkblade fighting against Ladybug and Cat Noir. Then the screen turned back to the reporter.

"It has been about 15 minutes into the duel." Alya reported. "One would think that by now, they would have defeated the notorious Darkblade, who made his debut several months ago. No one is quite sure what caused him to be akumatized again, but this is the second time Hawkmoth has resorted to recycling villains and the first akuma attack since the Day of the Rising Moon."

The screen turned back to the fight. Cat Noir was knocked down by two of Darkblade's knights, but he quickly got back up.

Nino extended his left arm. "Wayzz, scales on!"

He closed his eyes as Wayzz entered the bracelet. As his mask formed, he brought two fingers from each of his hands to his face before extending his arms as his clothes were replaced by a green jumpsuit. His shield appeared, strapped over his back and he held his arms at a perfect 90 degrees with his fists enclosed. Once he finished transforming, he left his room and quickly made his way over to the scene of the fight. He hoped that he was not too late.

He quickly jumped from rooftop to rooftop, as he wasn't very good at hoverboarding yet. When Jade Ninja arrived at the battlefield, he saw Darkblade's light mask appear and he had no idea what to do.

"Thy efforts of escape are futile, Venomous Insect!" Darkblade declared.

While Hawkmoth spoke to him, Jade tried to think of an idea.


	12. Up for the Challenge

Not having any other ideas, Jade Ninja threw his shield towards Darkblade as if it was a frisbee. The sharp edge cut partially through his armor, preventing him from grabbing Ladybug's earrings in the nick of time. His shield then returned back to him.

"Leave her alone, you crazed landlord!" he ordered.

Darkblade charged towards him, so he used his shield to deflect all of his attacks. After shielding himself for about a minute, he picked up one of the knight's weapons and tried using it against the power-hungry knight, to no avail. The battle axe was knocked out of his hands. Darkblade shoved him to the ground and then he waved his hand through an illusion. A young man in a fox suit appeared before him and wielded his flute as if it were a sword.

 _I don't remember getting new co-workers being in the job description._ Jade Ninja thought to himself.

 _Oh man, it slipped my mind. You will not only work alongside Ladybug and Cat Noir, but two other superheroes as well._

He then noticed Darkblade running towards city hall.

"He's getting away!" the fox exclaimed.

"Oh no he ain't!" a feminine voice answered.

He saw a young woman in a bee outfit standing at the crosswalk before City Hall. She glared at Darkblade as he and his army of knights stood toe to toe with her.

"Young maiden, out of the way, unless you wish to become a knight yourself." he commanded.

The other heroes stood back, wondering what she would do.

"Not happening, Darkblade!" she exclaimed.

She used her spear and chipped through his armor, and then Ladybug caught the akuma, purified it and the day was saved. He learned the bee and fox heroes were called Abeille and Renard respectively.

 _How fitting,_ he thought to himself.

Later that day, back at the Lahiffe apartment, Nino was helping his dad rearrange the furniture so they could get Zoe's room painted. The bed, which was in the upper right corner, was now in the middle of room. Zoe stood by her bed, wearing a marigold in her flower crown.

"Okay, Zoe, we'll start painting tomorrow. I got the day off, so me and Nino will be spending most of the day painting your room." Mr. Lahiffe said. "Maybe my sweetheart will join me after work if she feels like it."

"Do you mind if I help? I mean, you guys are doing so much for me." She rubbed her arm awkwardly. "I don't want this to feel like a burden."

"Aw, you're so sweet." Nino said, smiling. "Any help would be appreciated."

She looked at the two men curiously. "Are you guys always this kind and welcoming?"

"We've been having foreign exchange students like you come to our house for years. I know you were in the hall of visitors a while ago, although I don't know if you saw anyone else besides Lila." Nino answered. "Did you see the portraits of the other visitors?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well, if you want, you can look at the other visitors and just ignore her image. Most of the visitors aren't crazy or evil. She was the one exception to that rule."

"Oh, thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

The following day, the three of them were painting Zoe's room. Today she wore a white carnation and she was softly humming to herself as she painted the wall opposite from the window. At the same time, Nino painted the right side while his father did the left.

"Hey Zoe, could you get another can of paint from the garage?" Nino asked.

Zoe set her paintbrush down. "Oh sure. Be right back."

She left the room happily. Nino looked at his father. He was nervous to speak about the issue on his mind. "Hey dad. Can I... confide in you?"

"Sure," he answered. "what's the matter?"

"Are you sure she'll be okay here? With her being oblivious to Hawkmoth and the dangers of his akumas?"

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be fine." his father answered.

"If you say so..."

He turned away and continued painting. He wasn't entirely convinced. He spoke of this later with Wayzz.

"I think you should try not to worry about it too much." he said as Nino put away his numerous pairs of jeans. "There's an old saying that says 'A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.' Jean de la Fontaine said that."

"I thought it was Oogway who said, 'One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.' Or is that just a paraphrasing of a quote from a movie?"

"It's a paraphrasing, but my point still remains."

"Well, I... I had a vision. I saw a silhouette of a girl kneeling on the floor, holding a rose and crying. An akuma entered the rose and then the vision ended."

Wayzz ate some spinach leaves from a small bowl on Nino's desk. "That does not seem good. But how do you know if it's Zoe or not?"

Nino put his hand to his chin. "Well, Zoe loves flowers, especially roses from what I've gathered."

"Lots of girls love roses. Roses are the flowers of love after all. That's common knowledge."

"I guess you got a point there. By the way, I've been meaning to ask, is there anything I can do to make your stay here more enjoyable? I mean, you don't seem to be very comfortable sleeping on my wooden nightstand."

Wayzz thought to himself for a moment. "If it's not too much to ask, a fish tank would be nice. Although somehow I doubt you have one..."

"Hold on a sec." He went into his bathroom and looked in the drawers underneath the sink. "I know I used to have it at one point in time." He threw out some towels and some other supplies, and after searching, pulled out a large rectangular fish tank. He set it down on the sink. "Ta-da! I used to have a goldfish a long time ago, and it's got a water temperature adjuster, a filter. Everything a real turtle would need."

"And it still works?"

He filled up the tank with warm water and turned the filter on.

"Apparently it does."

Wayzz laid his back on the water. "Ah, it feels so nice. Thank you!"

"No problem, little man." Nino smiled briefly."Maybe I should get you a goldfish so that you don't feel lonely."

The next day, Nino and Zoe were out shopping. Zoe was looking for an orchid plant while Nino was at the pet store.

"Hello, I need two pet goldfish please. Where would I find that?"

A female clerk overheard his request. She smiled and answered, "Oh, I can get the goldfish for you. Follow me." He followed the clerk to a fish tank with two goldfish in it. She muttered, "I think these are both male..." She got out a small little net, scooped out the fish and put them into a plastic bag. He then made his purchase and met with Zoe back at the car. After they went home, he put the goldfish into the tank.

"So what will you name them?"

He noticed that one of them looked slightly beaten. He pointed to that one, and then the other. "This one's Will, and that one's Conny."

"I like that. Where there's a will, there's a Wayzz!"

Nino chuckled. The joke was rather clever. "No matter what happens, I'll always be up for the challenge."

Several weeks passed. The quintet was doing nightly patrol and Abeille and Renard were arguing. Jade Ninja looked sternly at the two arguing heroes. "Calm down you two. It looks like there's nothing there. Let's go."

The superheroes turned their backs and started walking away. They were about to go their separate ways when Abeille pointed something out.

"Unidentified person at ten o'clock!"

They turned her way and saw a magician pointing a wand and making buildings disappear.

Ladybug gasped. "The Magician of Misfortune?!"

"But we beat him!" Cat Noir claimed.

Jade looked at the magician. "Apparently, he's back."

"Well, look's like there's only one thing to do." Abeille said.

Renard turned to his teammates. "We have to fight him."

The heroes confronted him. The Magician of Misfortune looked at the superheroes. He frowned, then he proceeded to laugh at them. "You are fools trying to confront me again!"

"You're the fool, Misfortune! We defeated you and there were only two of us!" Cat Noir retorted.

Abeille gave him a skeptical look. "Look at it logically. There's five of us and one of you. What'ca gonna do?"

He smirked. "Glad you asked." He got out his wand and shot a bunch of rabbits towards them. "I got some new tricks up my sleeve! Pesto chango!" He fired a white beam at the rabbits and they soon turned into one giant rabbit monster. The rabbit giant growled and the quintet of heroes gasped. "Good luck trying to beat that! Arrivederci!"

He disappeared in a puff of smoke. Cat Noir gulped. "Well this is new."

"Anyone got any ideas?" Jade asked.


	13. A Hare-y Situation

They had tried facing against the giant hare, only to notice the Magician of Misfortune had disappeared. Jade Ninja looked around. "Where did the Magician go?"

"The same place he went to last time," Ladybug began.

"The Eiffel Tower." she and Cat Noir said in unison.

"Then go stop him. We've got this." Renard said.

"Are you sure?" Cat Noir asked.

They all nodded yes and Abeille responded, "Yes, go! Hurry!"

The Lucky Duo ran off, leaving the trio to face the giant rabbit alone.

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Jade asked them.

Neither of them answered him. The giant hare slammed his fists onto the ground. Abeille climbed up his fist, and she held on as he raised his fist. Jade Ninja threw his shield towards him. The disk was enough to cut him and make him bleed, but it wasn't enough to defeat him. The hare turned towards Jade and pounded him into the ground with his fist.

"Jade!" Renard run towards him. Jade sat up, and he felt horribly dizzy. "Are you okay?"

He answered with an incoherent moan. Renard noticed the giant coming towards his way. Jade's head spun, and he heard a flute being played. Or was it his imagination? Renard seemed to have created an illusion. The next thing he knew, he was dragged to an alleyway by his teammate.

"I've bought us some time. I created a distraction for him."

Renard ran onto the battlefield. Jade Ninja saw the fight from afar as he tried to come to his senses. Abeille was back on the ground and slashing at the giant rabbit with her spear. The giant hare used his fingers to flick her away, leaving her momentarily confused. She shook it off and charged towards the rabbit. Renard looked at her angrily.

"Get your head in the game, Abeille!"

She wanted to snap at him, but she ignored that comment and stabbed the rabbit's foot.

"Nothing's working!" she cried out. "No matter how many times we hit him, he won't give up!"

Renard threw an energy beam into his right eye, making him shut his eye in pain. The hare smacked Renard aside into a glass window, knocking him out. The giant hare walked towards the alley where Jade Ninja was hiding.

"Don't just stand there Jade! We gotta do something!" Abeille cried out.

Jade Ninja remembered that he could use his shield to hover through the air. "I got an idea. Hand me your spear!"

"Are you sure..?"

"Yes! Just trust me!"

Somewhat reluctantly, she threw her spear towards him. He got out his shield and started coasting upwards. He was better at maintaining his balance, but he had to be careful not to crash into the giant rabbit. The rabbit saw Abeille and started chasing her.

 _Oh man, what did I get myself into?_ Jade thought.

He hesitated. He couldn't get close enough without the giant hare smacking him out the sky. He had a terrible aim. There was no way he could do this. He looked down at Renard, who laid on the ground unconscious.

 _I can't do it, I can't do it!_

 _Don't say that!_

Abeille tripped and the rabbit caught her. She was hung in the air by one of her legs. "Let go of me, you fluffy white pet!"

He ignored his doubts and glared at the rabbit.

"Leave her alone, you overgrown hare!"

He threw the spear towards his other eye, blinding him. He dropped Abeille and she fell, only for Jade Ninja to catch her. The rabbit fell over and crashed to the ground. Jade Ninja hovered to the ground and set Abeille down gingerly.

"Are.. are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thanks to you. Although Renard seems to have it worse."

Jade put his shield away. "I'm surprised he didn't detransform."

"I wonder how the others are doing." She gasped. "The others! They need our help!"

Abeille started to run, only for Jade to stop her by grasping her shoulder. "What about Renard?"

She sighed. "I'll get the left side, you get the right."

The duo carried him to the Eiffel Tower. They arrived as Ladybug purified the akuma.

Cat Noir saw the trio and looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Yikes, what happened to you guys?"

"The rabbit gave us a hard time." Jade Ninja answered. "He threw Renard right into a glass window, knocking him out cold." He and Abeille set his teammate down. "I'm amazed at how he didn't detransform even when knocked unconscious."

"You'd be surprised the ability of the Miraculous to retain transformation as long as you don't use up your super powers." Cat Noir said. Just then, Ladybug's earrings beeped again. "Well, we better be retiring for the night."

"But I thought you wanted our identities to stay secret from each other." Abeille said.

"I did say that." Ladybug began. "Have any of you heard the title of Great Guardian?"

Abeille was clueless. If Renard knew anything, he couldn't have answered the question. Jade thought to himself for a moment.

 _Yeah. My predecessor was the previous Great Guardian._ Wayzz answered in his head.

Jade Ninja spoke, "Yeah, I have. My kwami has mentioned to me that my predecessor was the previous one. Why do you ask?"

"Well, since I'm the Great Guardian, and because Cat Noir helped me to choose the new Miraculous wielders, we know who you are under your masks. But we can not ask you to reveal your identity to your teammates. As for Cat Noir finding out who I am, he already knows. He was smart enough to figure it out on his own, despite the glamour magic that hides our true faces. Concurrently, I know who he is because he told me. He did this because he felt guilty of knowing my secret identity while I didn't know his."

Her earrings beeped again. "Uh, My Lady?"

"Oh right. Let's move."

The Lucky Duo left, leaving Jade and Abeille in confusion.

"So what do we do?" Abeille asked. "We don't know who he is under the mask."

At that moment, Renard woke up. He looked around and sat up. "Uh... What happened?"

"You were knocked out. We defeated the giant rabbit." Jade answered.

"We? That was practically all you." Abeille said.

"You sure?"

"You took my spear and I was caught by the rabbit. You're the real hero."

Jade Ninja turned to Renard. "You think you can make it home by yourself?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

Jade smiled. "In that case, we better get going our separate ways. Goodnight."

"Goodnight guys." Abeille said.

Renard walked away. "Goodnight!"

Jade Ninja went back to his home and collapsed on his bed.


	14. The Weight on His Shoulders

A few days later, in early July, Nino thought things were looking up. Zoe's room had finished being painted days ago, and they had gotten her all of her potted plants and decor she requested. Zoe wore an amaryllis in her flower crown.

"Thank you guys. I can't thank you enough for doing all of this."

"You're welcome. I mean, we don't care what your faith is, what you're sexual orientation is or what you look like. All that we ask is that you're a kind person who's willing to help others and do the right thing." Nino said.

Zoe took a small watering can and watered her orchid plant. "You know I'm more than willing to do both of these things."

Suddenly he felt a vibration. He looked at his phone, but there were no text messages. He excused himself to his room. He transformed and looked at his text messages. He had one from Ladybug that read, _Meet me and Cat Noir on the rooftop of Le Grand Paris hotel._

Jade was the first to arrive, followed by Abeille and Renard. The quintet then went to Temple VI Paris Apartments, where Master Fu's room was. At the door entrance there was a digital lock with a password. Ladybug entered the passcode and they stepped into what used to be Master Fu's massage shop.

"Welcome to the Safe Hero Haven. A safe haven for us superheroes. Furnished with five beds, one for each of us, private storage areas. It has a full kitchen, bathrooms and even what used to be a storage area. Now it's just a big empty space, similar to an attic. You can go there if you're about to detransform. And of course, a living room with a very comfy sofa, 32 inch screen tv with every channel known to man, a Play Station 4, Wii U, and an Xbox 360 with various games. Feel free to bring your own! We also got a small computer of you need to work on school projects or see Alya's Ladyblog."

"Wow, this is totally legit!" Jade Ninja exclaimed.

"Sweet!"

Renard looked at Ladybug. "But what's the purpose of this?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "If you're a fugitive, can't stay at your home or otherwise just need to get away from everything, you can come here. Sometime after Master Fu's tragic demise at the hands of our enemies, I became a fugitive and my civilian form was forced into hiding. I don't want to see you guys go through the same thing I did."

His partners were very curious about the place. They asked Ladybug and Cat Noir numerous questions. While he did this, he went over to the computer, got onto the Ladyblog and looked for a video of himself. Ladybug wrote down on three different slips of paper the code; 06031991. She gave the code to each of them. Shortly after, they went their own ways. Jade found the video he was looking for an clicked on it. The video started with an aerial view of Paris from a rooftop. Nino looked closer and realized that Alya was standing on the roof of the Cesarie Mansion.

 _Man, is that woman crazy?_ Jade thought to himself.

"Alya here, coming to you from the scene of the battle with the quintet who are facing the Magician of Misfortune once again."

The scene turned to the Miraculous Quintet looking at the Magician, who was laughing at him. "You are fools trying to confront me again!"

"You're the fool, Misfortune! We defeated you and there were only two of us!" Cat Noir retorted.

Abeille gave him a skeptical look. "Look at it logically. There's five of us and one of you. What'ca gonna do?"

He smirked. "Glad you asked." He got out his wand and shot a bunch of rabbits towards them. "I got some new tricks up my sleeve! Pesto chango!" He fired a white beam at the rabbits and they soon turned into one giant rabbit monster. The rabbit giant growled and the quintet of heroes gasped. "Good luck trying to beat that! Arrivederci!"

"Oh my. This looks like a challenge! How are the heroes going to handle this?" Alya asked.

As if on cue with her question, Ladybug got out her yoyo and advanced towards the giant. She tried lassoing one of the rabbit's legs, but he moved towards them despite her efforts to restrain him. The rabbit then picked up the yoyo and spun Ladybug around before throwing her into the wall, making her really dizzy. Cat Noir struck the beast with his staff repetitively while Jade Ninja threw his shield towards him. Neither of these had any effect on him. He smacked Cat Noir aside and tried to hit Jade Ninja, only for him to expand his shield to protect himself. Renard created an illusion of himself running away and the monster chased after it. While he did this, Renard climbed up and he stabbed the rabbit with his flute. Which actually didn't do much damage. The rabbit released the Renard that was running from him was an illusion after he stepped on it. The rabbit reached behind his back, grabbed the fox superhero and held him tightly in his fist. He tried to escape to no avail.

"Let go of me you overgrown hare!"

"Put him down you fluffy lovable creature!"

Abeille stabbed him in the foot with her spear and he groaned in agony. He crashed back-first into a building and dropped Renard. Ladybug, who finally got her head back in the game, caught him before he hit the ground. She set him down and looked again.

Jade Ninja looked around. "Where did the Magician go?"

"The same place he went to last time," Ladybug began.

"The Eiffel Tower." she and Cat Noir said in unison.

"Then go stop him. We've got this." Renard said.

"Are you sure?" Cat Noir asked.

They all nodded yes and Abeille responded, "Yes, go! Hurry!"

"Oh my gosh! The Tremendous Trio must now face what appears to be a giant rabbit all by themselves. With inconsistent practice, how will they handle this?"

The film showed Jade Ninja throwing his shield towards the rabbit. The disk was enough to cut him and make him bleed, but it wasn't enough to defeat him. The hare turned towards Jade and pounded him into the ground with his fist.

"Jade!" Renard run towards him. Jade sat up, and he felt horribly dizzy. "Are you okay?"

Alya, off-screen, probably cringed before saying, "Ooo... That's gotta hurt. Yikes."

He finished watching the film. He seemed to be struggling, but ultimately, he was the one to save the day. He saw Ladybug symbolism and meanings, as well as one for black cats that was added a few weeks ago. He detransformed. Nino then read Alya's article titled _Turtle Symbolism and Meanings_.

"I'm not sure I'm up for this. But I have to at least try right?"

"Turtles are known for determination and not faltering from their path no matter what. Bear this in mind in the weeks to come."

"Okay."

Before he knew it, they were facing an akuma attack again. A few minutes ago, all had been peaceful, and he was planning on taking Zoe around Paris on a guided walking tour. Nino was that guide. Zoe put on some white tennis shoes, which replaced her sandals and she wore a small larkspur blossom in her hair.

"Ready to go?" Nino asked.

She took the flower out of her hair, examining it before putting it back in again. "Yep. Just get your shoes on."

Nino went to his room, only to have Wayzz vibrating.

"Wha... what's happening?!" He tried to keep his voice down.

"You have a call from Cat Noir. You gotta answer it and or transform!"

"Wayzz, scales on!"

He transformed and quickly answered the call. "Hey Cat, what's up?"

"You rang?" Renard asked.

"Simon Says has returned. I need you guys to meet up with us at the park nearby Francoise Dupont." Cat Noir quickly answered.

"Got it."

"Roger that."

Jade Ninja and Renard quickly arrived at the park, where Ladybug and Cat Noir were waiting.

"Where's Abeille?" Jade asked.

Ladybug answered, "Her civilian form is among the many victims of Simon Says."

"She's been hypnotized in her normal form." Renard sighed. "I guess I can't blame her for that..."

Cat Noir looked around, trying to find the akumatized villain. "So where is Simon Says?"

He entered the park with his servants by his side. "Right here! Tell me where Marinette is and I won't have to hurt you!"

"You're too late, Simon! Marinette's already run off to a safe place! You'll never find her!" Ladybug proclaimed.

"Well then, back to the original objective; taking your Miraculouses!" He got out his cards. "Simon Says, get them!"

"Uh oh..." Renard muttered.

The servants charged towards them. Renard, Cat Noir and Ladybug spun their weapons around. Jade Ninja extended his shield, trying to protect himself. Whenever servants approached him from the other side, he punched and kicked them away from himself.

"Simon Says, you'll hand your Miraculouses to me!"

He threw those cards at the superheroes, but they swiftly dodged his magical evil cards. He continued throwing more of them at the quartet.

Jade Ninja had completely covered himself with his shield as if he was an actual turtle who rejected into his shell. "Got any ideas?"

"I would blast them down with energy beams, but I'm still trying to get the hang of using it and aiming it correctly!" Renard exclaimed.

"Cat Noir, use your Cataclysm on the ground!" Ladybug ordered. He summoned the power of destruction to his right hand. He aimed it at the ground, causing a minor earthquake. "Now jump!"

Renard and Cat Noir listened and did what she said. She jumped to avoid the earthquake. Simon Says and his servants were all rattled by the minor earthquake and they fell to the ground. Jade's shield vibrated heavily, banging against his head. He was in a lot of pain and he was disoriented as a result. His shield retracted to his default size. Ladybug grabbed his card deck and ripped cards until she found the akuma. She purified it and everything went back to normal.

"I'll take him back to his home. His folks are probably wondering where he is." Cat Noir grabbed Jade's arm and helped him up. Using his staff, he propelled them forward to Nino's place.

"Cat, why are you helping me?" Jade asked.

"You're my friend, Jade. Also, you kinda banged your head on your shield trying to defend yourself."

"How was I supposed to know that you were going to use Cataclysm? Also, I didn't even think it could be used on the bare uncovered ground!" Jade Ninja retorted.

"It's alright. You're new, so I'll cut you some slack. Just try to get some rest."

"Thanks dude."

He led Jade to his bed. "Here we are."

"Thanks man, whoever you are under the mask." Cat Noir left the room. "Wayzz, scales off."

He detransformed and slipped into unconsciousness.


	15. Alya's Altercation

Pretty soon, the school year had started. Zoe wore a daffodil in her flower crown. Once again, Nino had Ms. Bustier as his first teacher (and also home teacher).

"So, why a daffodil?" Nino asked.

She smiled. "Daffodils symbolize new beginnings. This is first day at a new school, in a new country, so why not?"

"Um, excuse me, but I'm saving this seat for my friend Adrien. You probably know who he is." Marinette said.

Zoe hesitated. She looked very confused. "Uh... Who's Adrien?"

"It's alright, you can sit behind me." Nino said.

"Is Ms. Bustier mean?"

"What no. She's really sweet, and firm only when she needs to be."

He wasn't part of the return of Copycat akuma attack, but he can easily remember the last akuma attack before things escalated downhill. It was a normal day like any other, that is until math class. They had already finished up yesterday's notes, which didn't get done because of so many distractions.

"Where are Alix, Kim and Max?" Sabrina asked.

"More importantly, where's Zoe?" Nino asked.

Alix and Kim were the first to enter. Alix was obviously unhappy. She carried a bag in her right hand. She then set her bags down, got out what appeared to be a big stack of newspapers from the bag and started ripping them into pieces. A few seconds later, Max entered and walked to his seat. Zoe walked in behind him, wearing a pair of pink sunglasses and a heather flower in her crown. She took her seat behind Nino and tried to act like everything was normal. A few seconds after that, Ms. Mendeleiev noticed the arrival of the four students.

"Oh, there you are. Where have you been?"

Max sighed. "Long story."

The teacher looked at Zoe. "And why is Zoe wearing those sunglasses? Take them off!"

She hesitated. "Are you sure? The damage is really bad."

"I've seen a lot of eye damage before. It can't be too bad."

"Well... Okay..."

The flower girl slowly removed her glasses, revealing a severe bruised left eye and a red bruise on her face. Everyone, aside from Alix, Kim and Max, who had already seen the injury, gasped.

Ms. Mendeleiev was visibly upset. "Oh good heavens, child! What happened to you?!"

"Ask the pink haired menace."

Everyone looked over at Alix. Many of the students, including Nino, Adrien, Marinette and Nathaniel glared at her. Others, such as Rose, Juleka, Alya, Sabrina and Kim, simply looked at her with sadness and/or curiosity.

"What? She deserved it!"

"You did not have a legitimate reason for hurting her." Kim conveyed in a serious tone.

"She had it coming! She's blind and dumb! And she doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut!"

"Uh, why is Alix angry with the flower girl?" Marinette asked.

Max reached down and grabbed a newspaper from Alix's bag. "Read this article. It'll tell you almost everything." He gave Marinette a copy of _Francoise Dupont News_. Nino took it and examined it. "Read the headline. Then skip to Paragraph four."

"What does it say, Nino?" Alya asked.

"The headline reads ' _Fire and Ice (Alix and Kim): Perfect Rivals or Perfect Lovers?'_ Skipping to paragraph four..."

Alix groaned. "Why, Max? Why?"

"They're gonna find out sooner or later."

She sighed and then groaned again. Nino continued reading, " _People have been wondering why Alix and Kim suddenly tossed their rivalry aside after last year's Summer Solstice Gala. Well, thanks to a flower girl leading me directly to Alix and Kim themselves, I found out something very amusing; Alix and Kim got together after Queen Bee's attack on the dance floor."_

The remaining students (except Sabrina) and Ms. Mendeleiev gasped.

"Woah. No wonder she's angry with Zoe." Juleka said.

"Please continue." Nathaniel added.

Alix groaned again, this time even louder. Nino continued. " _They were conveying this to Kim's best friend Max, who did not seem too surprised by this revelation. While I was writing this, Alix overheard my pencil lead snap and she turned over in our direction. She immediately locked eyes with the girl with flowers in her hair and I promptly skedaddled out of there to a safer location. I climbed up the stairs as Alix screamed, 'You f****** b****!' She then punched the flower girl right in her left eye, and probably would have done the same to her right eye or worse had Kim and Max not interfered so quickly. Kim had to use both of his arms to restrain her while Max tried his best to comfort her. Fred Haprele, one of the many employees, saw the whole thing and took Alix to the principal's office. Kim went with her (possibly to try and reduce the punishment she would get), while Max took the girl to the health office. I can only imagine the amount of trouble Alix is in, and how mad she's going to be at me for writing this article..."  
_

"Well, that would explain a lot." Alya said. "Can't say that I blame her."

Alix pointed at Zoe. "She exposed a relationship that was supposed to stay secret. I've beaten her, yet I'm still angry with her..."

Kim grasped her shoulders. "Alix, don't. You already have a week's worth of detention. And the principal went easy on you because you've had a clean slate for the last two years!"

"She's dumb and blind! She's so oblivious and she can't keep her mouth shut! No one was supposed to know!"

Kim looked tense. "Well, there's only one thing that scares me more than Hawkmoth's akumatized villains; Alix's anger..."

Max turned to Sabrina. "I did not hear you gasp." He looked at her curiously.

She appeared quite panicked. She blurted out, "Okay, I saw everything that happened between Alix and Kim on that night of the gala! I was in the wrong place at the wrong time! I knew, I wasn't supposed to know, and they didn't even know I knew and I knew I wasn't supposed to know and... And..." She breathed in deeply before exhaling. "I didn't say anything tough..."

"I appreciate that." Alix said, before clinching her fist. She glared at Zoe again. "But it still doesn't change the situation."

"I'm worried that Alix will be akumatized back into Timebreaker at this rate..." Adrien said.

She scoffed. "Unlikely."

Max added, "Usually Hawkmoth strikes before anger is released and on those who try to conceal their emotions. Although it is still possible..."

Rose looked at him, concerned. "And even then, what would happen?"

"She'd go after the person she hates the most." Max answered. "That's what she did last time."

Nathaniel was confused. "I thought she hated everyone equally as she said, 'You're all to blame!'"

"That's true, but who was her first target?" Several pairs of eyes looked at Kim. Max nodded. "Exactly. At the time, she hated Kim the most, so he was the first victim in both timelines. But if Alix was to lose her marbles again..."

He looked towards Zoe, and she became terrified. "You.. you mean... Alix is going to lose her marbles.. and then she'll hurt me?!"

Nino gently put his arms around her. "No, she won't. Even if she does lose her temper and her mind again, I won't let her hurt you." Zoe sobbed into his chest. "You mean everything to me, and I'm not letting anything happen to you."

Rose went, "Aw..." as Alya started steaming. She glared at Zoe intensely.

Marinette noticed. "You ok, Alya? You're gonna drill holes into Zoe if you keep giving her that look."

She turned away with her arms folded. Nino asked, "What's the matter, Alya?"

Alya turned back to him. "You care more about her than me."

"What? That's not true!"

"It is. You cancelled many of our dates just to spend time with her!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Remember June 29th? We were supposed to go to the ice cream parlor, but you skipped out to go spend time with Zoe."

"I was supposed to give her a tour of the city, but that didn't happen because of the return of Darkblade!"

"Remember July 14th? August 20th? September 1st?"

A few flashbacks came to his mind. On Bastille Day (July 14th), Alya invited Nino to her Bastille Day party at the Cesarie Mansion, but he took Zoe to a skating rink instead and treated her to some treats from the Dupain-Cheng bakery before going to the park to watch fireworks. He remembered enjoying some profiteroles on a park bench.

"Mmm. These are incredible!"

Nino smiled. "I know right?"

Zoe pointed to the sky. "Oh look, the fireworks show is starting!"

As she spoke those words, the fireworks exploded in the sky. Colorful explosions of red and blue lit up the night sky. Then he remembered August 20th. He was supposed to meet Alya, Adrien and Marinette for a double date at a beach in a city called Nice. He declined because he said that he had too many chores to do, but he was actually taking Zoe to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Finally, he recalled September 1st. He was supposed to meet Alya at a fancy restaurant for dinner, but because Zoe had caught a cold, he declined. Zoe was in her bed, sitting up while Nino handed a cup of hot tea to her.

She sipped a little of the tea, being careful not to burn her tongue. "Are you sure Alya won't be mad at you?"

"Yeah, I told her that I was looking after my sick sister. She'll never know."

He snapped back to reality and looked at Alya. "What makes you think that I don't care about you?"

"You're not telling me the truth. You said your sister was sick, but Ella and Etta told me that Leah was just fine. She went to school that day, went to volleyball practice and even her private violin lessons."

His face turned into a panicked, nervous expression. _Oh crud, I'm screwed._

"You're only angry because you're jealous!" Nino retaliated.

"Ooo, burn!" someone said.

"I am NOT jealous!" Alya said.

"Really? Your face says otherwise." Marinette quipped.

"You're not helping!"

"I'm not trying to."

"You're not explaining why you're spending so much time with her. You're trying to protect her 'akumatization', yet you don't even try to profess that the Miraculous Legends are true!"

"You don't understand! Zoe doesn't believe in the existence of akumas!"

"Why not? Everyone knows of Hawkmoth and his threat to Paris!"

"There's an old saying," Max began. "'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.' The same principle applies to Zoe. We can tell of the Miraculous Legends and evil akumas all we want, but we can't force her to believe any of it. In the end, it's her decision. An arguably foolish decision, but her decision nonetheless."

"Au contaire! I beg to differ. Remember the words, 'Seeing is is believing.'? The only reason Zoe doesn't believe it, is because she hasn't seen it. If she saw footage, or even better, saw an akuma attack live, she'd believe it." Alya retorted.

"No way! It's bad enough you're already risking your neck to get footage for the Ladyblog, but directly trying to eliminate Zoe?! That's low!" Nino accused.

"I am not trying to eliminate her! I'm not trying to hurt her like Alix is!" She glared at her boyfriend. "And I know basic safety precautions! I've never gotten severely injured during an akuma attack!"

"What about that time you were kidnapped by the Pharaoh?!"

"That was only one time! And need I remind you that Zoe is one of the few students in this room who has yet to be akumatized, alongside Adrien and Marinette. Also, what's the big deal if she gets akumatized? Then maybe she'd learn the truth!"

Every student (except Alix) gasped. Nino gasped the loudest and then glared at her. "How dare you wish akumatization upon her!"

"I DO NOT..!"

"ENOUGH!" Ms. Mendeleiev exclaimed. "You're acting like five year olds and it's driving me nuts!" She muttered something under her breath that Nino didn't hear.

Alya looked sternly at Nino. "Meet me over nearby where Raphael D'Argencourt's classroom used to be at three o'clock. Bring yourself and the clothes on your back."

The rest of class was eerily silent. The other classes had the same silence as well.

 _Oh gosh... I'm so screwed..._


	16. He Ran Out of Time

Nino stood over by his locker. Wayzz calmly ate some spinach leaves on the lower shelf of the locker as Nino panicked. It was the end of the school day, and Nino had only a few minutes before he was supposed to meet Alya at Raphael's old classroom. Armand's older brother, Raphael, had been a health and science teacher. He retired a few years before his untimely death. Nino was pacing before putting his backpack on his knee and going through the items in his backpack.

"Oh this is bad." He put his science book into his locker. "What am I going to say to her?"

"Why don't you tell her the truth?"

He put his math book into his backpack. "I fear that she won't understand and just say I'm paranoid." Nino sighed. "It feels like Alya just wants to get rid of her."

"Is that what Alya thinks? Or is that what you think Alya thinks?" Wayzz asked.

Nino thought to himself silently for a moment before Zoe came over. He quickly shut the locker door. "Oh.. h.. hey Zoe."

"Hey. It looks like your girl's pretty mad at you."

"Ya think?" He took his backpack off his knee and threw it over his back.

"So what are you gonna do?"

The young DJ sighed. "I don't know. We still haven't gotten you your house key yet, and there's only one for the both of us."

Zoe shifted the pink flower that she wore in her hair. "Maybe I should come with you. Alya might understand better if she heard from my perspective."

"I understand your thinking, but I'm worried that will only make things worse."

Her smile quickly turned into a sad face. "Oh ok. I could just wait here."

"I don't want you to be waiting on me. It wouldn't be fair to you."

She looked at the clock. 2:59. "It's almost 3:00."

"Don't remind me..."

Suddenly a scream was heard. Zoe nearly jumped. "What was that?!"

Nino had a bad feeling in his gut. He knew what was happening. He handed the keys to Zoe. "Here, take the keys and go to the house. Get there as fast as you can and don't look back."

"But what about you?"

"I'll be fine. I'll explain when this is over."

"But..."

"Go!"

Without further hesitation, Zoe took the keys and ran off. Wayzz phased out of the locker. "Why didn't you tell her it was an akuma attack? And what are you going to tell your family?"

"I didn't want to scare her and I don't know, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Wayzz, scales on!"

He transformed into Jade Ninja and looked around for Timebreaker.

"Hey Jade, up here!"

He heard Ladybug call out to him. She, Cat Noir, Renard and Abeille were already on the rooftop. He soon joined them.

Cat Noir addressed to the group, "I assume you know what just happened."

"Alix has been akumatized again." Abeille answered.

Ladybug's face turned sour. "Unfortunately."

"We better figure out where Timebreaker is." Renard advised.

The five heroes found Timebreaker and Kim in their last class. Their heads were in alignment. Jade was the first one to start spying on them, while Abeille was above him. Ladybug was above her and Cat Noir and Renard were on the other side of the entrance. The akumatized villain was partially leaning on one of the desks while Kim stood close to a whiteboard.

"She's not doing anything threatening at the moment." Ladybug said.

"So what now?" Abeille asked.

Jade Ninja shrugged. "I guess we just watch her now?"

"You don't have to be like this." Kim said. "Forget about revenge. Just be happy that you have me as your man."

She fully stood up. "And let that flower girl Zoe Gardener get away with it?" She ripped a piece of paper of half. "Fat chance, Kim!"

"I mean, I know you never wanted our relationship exposed, but, why? What's so bad about everyone knowing about us?"

She sighed. "You don't get it, do you? Tomboys like me aren't supposed to get the guy."

"And jerks like me aren't supposed to get the girl. Yet despite this, we both found true love- each other. How do you explain that, Catwoman?"

Timebreaker clinched her fist. "I don't know. All I know is that Zoe is responsible, and she will pay for this!" She was about to skate off when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Kim was shaking. "You're scared, aren't you?"

Kim shook harder. "You... you remember how I said earlier that your anger scared me more than akumatized villains. Well, now you happen to be both.. and uh, and I'm quite terrified!"

Her arms glowed green. "Don't be."

She grabbed his collar and dragged his lips to hers. He stood there shocked as she kissed him.

"What in the world?" Cat Noir asked.

"How is he not being absorbed?" Ladybug asked.

"It's gotta be that glowing around her arms!" Renard whispered in a moderate voice.

"Renard!" Abeille scolded.

She stopped making out with him and turned in their direction. "Spying on a couple snogging? That's just rude ya know!"

The heroes entered the room. "Whatever your plans are, you may as well just give up now!" Ladybug taunted.

"You can't stop me where I'm going!"

She threw Jade Ninja against the wall and then her arms stopped glowing. The akuma tried to grab Renard's wrist, only to miss.

Jade slowly got up. "You'll never find Zoe, Timebreaker! She's already left the building!"

"What?!" She growled under her breath and skated away. Ladybug threw her lasso around her waist to try and stop her, but it failed.

Cat Noir grabbed onto Ladybug, but he couldn't stop them. "Ladybug!"

"Cat Noir!" Abeille exclaimed, as she grabbed onto him.

"Abeille!" Renard grabbed onto her.

"Dudes!" Jade Ninja screamed as he too tried to stop Timebreaker by grabbing on to everyone else.

"Hang on, guys! Looks like we're returning to the past... now!" Ladybug exclaimed.

In a flash, the superheroes and Timebreaker vanished. The heroes soon found themselves in the past. Jade Ninja looked at the clock. 2:54. School was going to be dismissed in a minute.

"It's about a minute until dismissal." he noted.

"Which means Zoe is in her last class." Abeille added.

"We must hurry." Renard added.

The heroes raced to the room and they got there as the bell rang. The heroes looked around, but they didn't see Timebreaker anywhere. The students left without even noticing the superheroes were standing by the door. Zoe and Nino were some of the last students to leave the room, and all seemed well, when suddenly a bunch of flying objects came their way. Jade Ninja expanded his shield to protect himself and his friends. Then he looked to see Zoe standing completely still. Timebreaker had grabbed Zoe's wrist. She didn't even realize what was happening as she faded from time.

"Zoe!" Nino and Jade Ninja exclaimed in unison.


	17. Time and Time Again

Timebreaker laughed with an air of malevolence and superiority. "You're too late, little heroes! Zoe's gone for good!"

Nathaniel glared at Timebreaker. "How could you?!"

"How dare you!" Jade threw his shield at her, only for her to dodge. Timebreaker then started to levitate in the air.

"She can fly?! When did she..." Cat Noir started to ask.

Timebreaker ascended into the air, raised her arms and soon a sword appeared in her hands.

The scream was heard again. The akuma had reached Alix and it had entered a heart shaped pendant. A light mask formed around her eyes.

Nino ran towards Alix. Kim started to say, "Alix..."

"You don't have to do this!" Nino exclaimed.

She looked towards Nino. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come here to deliver a message."

"If you're telling me to leave Zoe alone, you may as well forget it!"

"Zoe's gone!" Nino exclaimed. He started crying. "She's dead and it's all your fault!"

Alix gasped. "Is that true?"

She walked forth, her mask still present.

"What's happening?!" Kim asked.

"I don't know!" Max answered.

The entire class looked at the scene below. One of the two Abeilles (Nino couldn't tell which was which) was absorbed by Timebreaker. Jade Ninja, two Ladybugs, two Cat Noirs and two Renards were there. Alix slowly walked down the stairs. Nino and Kim ran down to the battlefield, much to everyone's shock. The two tried to restrain Alix, who was making her way to Timebreaker, presumably to aid her. A mask of light appeared on Timebreaker's face.

"Now Timebreaker, get the Miraculous!" Hawkmoth commanded.

Suddenly Alix broke free from Nino and Kim and Timebreaker's light mask vanished. Alix still had a light mask around her and Timebreaker looked towards her. "Ah, come to join me?"

"No," she began. "I came to stop you!"

"What?" Timebreaker asked.

"What?!" everyone else asked.

She ran towards Timebreaker trying to grab something, only to be thrown into a wall by her evil counterpart. The audience gasped.

Nino ran away to quickly transform. "Wayzz, scales on!"

By the time he got back, Alix was rising from the ground. And his past counterpart had faded away into nothing.

"What? But how?" the Ladybugs asked.

"What?" Alix asked. "What's the problem? Aside from the fight?"

"You're not frozen." the past Cat Noir answered.

"And you still have your akuma light mask." the Cat Noir from the future said.

"Is that so?" She smirked. "And I'm not letting Hawkmoth take me! Not again!" She groaned in agony and placed her hand to her forehead.

Jade Ninja fought against Timebreaker as she looked towards Alix. "I thought you wanted to destroy Zoe. You should happy." Timebreaker said.

"I wanted to beat her up, not kill her! She didn't deserve the death sentence!" Alix retaliated.

Future Cat Noir attacked her, but she sapped his energy by grabbing his wrist.

"NO!" the future Ladybug screamed.

"Not again!" the other screamed.

Timebreaker's light mask appeared again. "Take his Miraculous!"

As the light mask disappeared. "Don't you dare." Alix said, standing in front of him as he vanished.

"Do you have a death wish?"

"You can't kill me."

Timebreaker knew that was true. She then got the present Abeille. That was bad. Renard was using illusions of traps to try and trick her, but she saw through all of them. Timebreaker shot hate arrows everywhere. Future Ladybug saw how dire the situation was getting.

"Lucky Charm!" she exclaimed, using her superpower.

She conjured a crown of fake flowers. It had a daisy, pink rose bud, a green lily, a blue flower, a daffodil, a red flower bud and an orange rose bud. It was an exact replica of Zoe's flower crown.

"What are you supposed to do with that?" her present self asked.

Hawkmoth spoke to Alix again. "Alix, join her... You could possibly prevent your secret from ever being exposed."

Suddenly, Alix felt petrified. Ladybug was out of ideas, so she threw the flower crown as the akuma slowly began engulfing her. Then she saw the flowers. She stopped and suddenly cried. "No! I won't join you! Never again!" A bright orange-red light surrounded her and spread throughout the room. Everyone was blinded by the bright light. Timebreaker and future Jade Ninja were still blinded after the light disappeared. Alix, who no had the light mask, grabbed Timebreaker's necklace. "Hey Ladybug! Catch the akuma and end this war!" She smashed it on the ground, releasing Timebreaker's akuma. The future Ladybug caught it and released it. The flower crown appeared back in her hands. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

Everything was turned back to normal. All of the superheroes become one person. Zoe reappeared right where she was frozen by Timebreaker. Zoe went back home. While the other superheroes were interviewed by Max and Alya (who got full footage of the fight), Nino went back to the locker as he got a text message. It was from Zoe.

 _I went back home. They let me in, but they want an explanation for why you're not here._

He texted back, _Tell them that I was speaking to Adrien._

It was a lie, but hopefully they'd buy it. He went back home, went to his room, put his backpack down and collapsed onto his bed.

"What a day..."

"And you still have Trigonometry."

"Ugh.. Pre Cal..."

He reluctantly got started on his homework. He didn't even understand the lesson and soon fell asleep. He saw visions of a flower crown falling apart, as if it was being ripped into pieces. He woke up when he heard Wayzz calling his name.

"I hate to bother you, but we got a big problem."

"What is it?"

"Well, you better see for yourself."

Nino walked into the bathroom and looked at the fishtank, only to find roughly hundred baby goldfish there.

"Holy cow! There's a ton of fish! But how? I thought the clerk said they both male."

"Apparently, she was wrong. One of them was a girl... And they laid eggs."

"But why so many?"

"Well, unlike humans, who have only a few offspring and care for them, most fish have several offspring and leave them behind in hopes that some will survive."

"That's cruel..."

"Well many fish eggs are usually eaten by other predators because they're out in the wild. But since they're safe in a fish tank here..."

"There's no threat to them. Oh man, there's no way I can keep all of them. What am I going to do with a hundred plus goldfish?"

Suddenly Nino's phone started ringing, playing the chorus of Livin La Vida Loca loudly. Alya was calling for a videochat call with him.

"Oh damn. She's probably mad at me for not coming to see her."

Wayzz suggested, "Better be a man and speak to her."

Reluctantly, he pressed the accept button.


	18. Cold, Harsh Reality

Alya looked at Nino through her phone screen. "Hey Nino."

"Hey Alya," Nino said. "Look, I know you're probably mad at me for not showing up..."

"There was an akuma attack and you were trying to protect Zoe. I can't blame you for that."

Nino smiled darkly. "Yeah... You can't..."

 _If only she knew what really happened..._

Alya turned her phone to her computer, which showed a video on the Ladyblog. "Got a lot of footage for the Ladyblog. Pity Zoe couldn't see it."

"And uh, Alya, I know you're mad at me, but I need your help. Do you have any idea what to do with a hundred plus goldfish?"

Alya was baffled. "A hundred goldfish? No. Why?"

Nino flatly answered, "I have a hundred or so baby goldfish in my tank."

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

Wayzz moved away from the tank and hid under the sink. Then he showed Alya the overcrowded fish tank. "Holy mackerel! That's a lot of fish!"

Nino chuckled at her pun. "Yeah, got any ideas?"

"You could sell them all."

"But what would I even do with the money? I already got over 200 dollars not counting the many cups of spare change."

"You could donate it to charity."

"That's actually a pretty good idea. Now the real question is, which one?"

"Well there's Les Restos du Coeur, Faith and Light, Zoe's Ark, to name a few here, or you could choose an organization outside the country like the March of Dimes."

"Hmm." He pondered to himself aloud. "I'll have to think about that..."

Eventually, he decided to give to Les Restos du Coeur. He started making posters that read,

 _Want to do some good? Buy a fish, buy a meal for a hungry child. All profits go to Les Restos du Coeur charity. Please call the number below for more information._

The posters also had a picture of a baby goldfish and Les Restos du Coeur logos on them. He put them all throughout the school the following morning. Sadly, most of those posters were quickly taken down.

"You've got to be kidding me." Nino said, exasperated.

Zoe looked downhearted. "The posters are already down?"

Suddenly a voice over the loudspeaker voice, "Nino Lahiffe to the principal's office. Nino Lahiffe, please report to Mr. Damocles's office."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh crud... I'm probably in trouble."

The flower girl tried not to be so despondent. "You want me to come with you? Maybe I can vouch for you."

"Sure, that would be nice."

The two walked down to the principal's office. Nino nervously knocked on the door. No answer. He slowly creaked the door open, only to find that Mr. Damocles was not there. They walked in.

"Well that's strange." he noted.

"Where could he be?" Zoe asked.

"Right here. I apologize for being late. Please, take a seat. We have something to discuss." Mr. Damocles ordered. The two took their seats and Nino tried to remain calm. "You do realize that putting posters all over the school is against school policy, right, Mr. Lahiffe?"

"Well... I honestly couldn't remember what the school policy was. I also thought that since it was for a charity and not for my own gain, that it wouldn't be such a big deal. Was I wrong?"

"It seems you were." The principal turned to Zoe. "Zoe Gardener, you're currently living under his family's roof. Is this true?"

"It is true. He started with 105 baby goldfish to sell, and so far, only one's been sold."

Nino looked at her curiously. "One? Who was the first customer?"

She chuckled. "Remember? I bought one, even though I'm more of a flower girl than an animal lover. I left the money next to the fish tank."

"Huh. So that's what that was."

"Well, Nino, since you didn't know, I'm going to let you off with a warning. If you do this again, you will be in detention. Understood?"

"I understand, Mr. Damocles. Is there anything I can do on my part to make this advertising legitimate?"

"You can ask a teacher to sponsor you or you can ask to put your message in an issue of _Francoise Dupont News_."

He smiled. "Thanks for your advice."

"Now you two should get to class."

As if on cue, the warning bell went off. Nino and Zoe promptly left. Once they exited the principal's office, they ran to their first class. Alya looked them scornfully as they entered seconds before the bell rang. The fact that Zoe accidentally fell on top of him made Alya steaming with fury, which she struggled to hide. Fortunately, for him, Ms. Bustier supported his project so he could make new posters and continue his charity campaign. Unfortunately, Alya was now giving him the good shoulder.

"Alya... What's wrong? Babe, talk to me."

She turned away and left without saying a word, leaving Nino crestfallen.

"You've done something wrong." Zoe correctly guessed.

Nino sighed. "I wish I knew what to do."

After school ended, he was on the rooftop of that said establishment. He was now Jade Ninja. He got out his communicator and sat down.

"Come on Renard... Answer."

He didn't see his face but he heard his voice. "Hello?"

"Hey Renard, can you meet up with me at the haven? I have a major problem and I need some advice."

"Sure, I'll be right there."

He hung up. Jade got on his hover board and went to the haven. Lucky for him, there was a secret path to the haven that only the Miraculous heroes knew about. After taking that said path, he entered the code and walked in.

"So what's the sitch?" Renard asked.

Jade chuckled softly to himself then sighed. "My girlfriend's really mad at me. I... I fear that she's going to break up with me."

"Why, what's the problem?"

"Well, there's this girl. She's sweet, and nice, and loves flowers. I'm not in love with her, at least not romantically, but she doesn't believe in the existence, power and danger of akumas nor does she know about the Miraculous legends, past or present. I've been trying to protect her from akumatization, and as a result, I've cancelled some my dates with my girlfriend. She thinks that the flower girl is trying to steal me away from her, and I've also thought that she wanted to get rid of the flower girl because she is jealous. I don't know how to resolve the situation."

Renard mused to himself for a moment.

"Hmm. Sounds like a difficult situation." He then looked at Jade curiously. "How did you confess that you liked your girlfriend?"

Jade Ninja laughed nervously, not knowing what to say at first. "Well, it's a long and funny story on that. Although, how do I tell you without exposing my true identity?"

"You don't have to tell me."

"Well, here's what happened. It was a normal day at the zoo. I actually had a crush on a different girl at the time. I'll just call her the baker. I said that I had liked my girlfriend, the reporter, when I had actually liked the baker. Me and the reporter were put into a cage by Ladybug after the animals escaped. At first she was angry, but we learned that we had a lot in common, started dating and fell in love. Now she's angry..."

"Hmm. I would just tell her the truth about the situation. I think she'll understand if you just come clean. Looks like you can't help me though."

"What's the matter?" Jade asked.

The fox sighed. "I'm in love with a girl at my school, but I don't know how to talk to her. I don't know what to say or what to do..."

"If you get an opportunity to get her alone without stalking her, maybe you could talk to her. Tell her how you feel. Just trust your own instincts."

"Thanks. I'm surprised that you and your girlfriend are still together since you're a superhero."

"Al- I mean the reporter and I have been in love since long before I was bestowed the Turtle Miraculous." The young superhero appeared with a determined look on his face. "I'm not going to let my superhero duties get in the way of my relationship. Nor should I let overprotecting my friend get in the way either."

Renard confidently smiled. "Hawkmoth doesn't know who we are, and he never will."

About three days later, after trying to speak to Alya, without any luck, all hell broke lose. Nino was getting worried because she couldn't find Zoe, although Alya tried to reassure him everything would be alright. He wished he hadn't believed her. Meanwhile, over by the box office, Zoe was on her knees, crying as the fake flowers laid on the ground. She still held the rose in her hands, and her tears fell onto it as an akuma entered it.

"Flora, I am Hawkmoth. I know you've never believed in me, but I can offer you vengeance against Marinette. Use your powers of nature against her. Capture her, torture and bring her to me. In return, you will bring me Cat Noir's Miraculous."

"Yes, Hawkmoth."

She put the rose into her hair and was engulfed in purple and black smoke.


	19. The Revenge of the Rose Witch

Nino was worried about Zoe. It had been ten minutes since class had begun, and had been over 15 minutes since he had last seen her. Marinette felt cold chills, much to the confusion of Nino and his classmates.

He noticed Nathaniel seeing something with his eye, but he couldn't tell what is was or what he had attempted to say. "Marinette, behind!-"

The blue-haired fashion designer was grabbed by her ankle by a vine. As she was dragged along, she screamed and Adrien ran to the railing. Nino looked from afar and saw a woman in rose shaped dress.

Nino joined his best friend on the railing, looked at the akumatized villain. He gasped and felt his heart begin to break. "Zoe?"

"The name's Flora now! And you will all pay for what you've done! Starting with this one!"

Using her nature magic, Flora made three vines with thorns appear and they attacked Marinette. They pricked her and cut her and she began to bleed. Adrien ran outside the school. Nino ran forward towards her, much to the protest of his fellow classmates.

"Nino, don't!" Alya exclaimed, but he didn't listen.

Nino looked sadly at Flora. "Zoe! Don't do this! What did Marinette ever do to you?!"

"You fool. She tore apart my flowers, and my hopes and dreams. Therefore, she will suffer! And I'm not letting you, or anyone else, get in my way!"

She used one of her vines to grab him and threw him against the wall, knocking him out. After being unconscious for who knows how long, he felt someone gently shaking his shoulder.

"Master... Master..."

Nino groaned. "Wayzz?"

The kwami nodded as his chosen got up. "The rose witch got away! You have to find her before it's too late!"

"Wayzz, scales on!"

He transformed in the middle of the school. Luckily, there were no witnesses. He left the school and raced through the city to try and find Flora. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop at a quick pace.

 _I hope we can find Marinette in time._ Wayzz said in his head.

 _Same here. Aside from Adrien and Alya, Marinette's my best friend!_

He was soon joined by his fellow superheroes Abeille and Renard. "There you guys are! Flora's getting away with an unconscious Marinette!"

Abeille asked, "Which way did that sneaky enchantress go?"

"Look, over there!"

Renard pointed over to a rooftop where Flora stood with her arms raised skyward. She had a giant cloud of green energy above her and she was adding more energy to it by the second. The three heroes confronted her.

Jade Ninja looked around before glaring at Flora. "Where's Marinette?!"

She laughed in a confident and sinister manner. "You're too late fools. Marinette's been handed over to Hawkmoth!"

The heroes gasped. Jade Ninja was the most horrified. "No!"

"Give it up, foolish heroes! Now that no one's in my way, I will turn this place into my own garden!"

Huge vines started to grow around the building. "Zoe... Please... don't do this!"

"I'm not Zoe, the weak and oblivious flower girl! I'm Flora, the all powerful enchantress! And without Ladybug, you guys can't defeat me! Just give it up! Marinette is gone forever and you'll never see the old me again!"

Jade Ninja felt himself sinking into despair. He felt tears threatening to fall from his eyelids and down his face. He fell to his knees and started crying like a baby, burying his face in his hand. He briefly glanced at Abeille and noticed that her wings drooped downward. She closed her eyes sadly. It seemed as if everyone in the group had given up.

"No." a stern voice said. "I'm not giving up."

Jade and Abeille opened their eyes and saw Renard blasting Flora down with a beam of energy. Using his flute, he then scattered the energy cloud, breaking it up and caused the energy that Zoe had accumulated to disperse.

"No!" She glared at Renard. "You're gonna pay for that!"

Jade put forth his right hand. "Time Crawl!"

He shot a green beam of energy towards the akumatized villain. Flora had been showed down by Jade's superpower. She said in slow motion, "Rose wind gust!"

It was fairly easy to dodge her attack since that too was in slow motion. Abeille got her spear and slashed it against Flora until she fell to the ground.

"Quickly, grab her!" Jade commanded. Abeille and Renard grabbed her right and left arms respectively. "Alright, if we just had some rope, we'd be able to bind her..."

"I think there's some down there." Renard pointed to a ball of green yarn.

"That's yarn, actually, but close enough."

He jumped down, swiftly retrieved the yarn and went back up to the roof. Abeille quickly tied up her wrists, then her arms and then her ankles with the thread.

"There. Wrapped up all nice and neat like a present." She chuckled. "If only I had a bow."

Jade looked happily at his coworker. "You have some mad skills, working that fast!"

Abeille smiled. "Thank you, Jade."

"Now we better get Ladybug over here." Renard got out his communicator and called Ladybug, but she didn't respond. "That's strange."

"Let me try." Jade said.

He did the same as Renard with the same result.

"That's strange. Third time's a charm?" Abeille too, tried to call Ladybug with her communicator, but she didn't respond. "Still nothing. What do we do now?"

Out the corner of his eye, he saw Cat Noir out cold. He gasped.

Renard asked, "Jade, what's the matter?"

He ran towards Cat Noir. "Cat Noir's unconscious! I gotta help him!"

"But what about Flora?"

"You guys drag her to the nearest prison!" He got on his shield and hovered over the ground with Cat Noir in his arms.

"But..." Abeille began.

"Go!"

Jade Ninja took an unconscious Cat Noir to the nearest hospital; Hopital Saint-Louis. He entered through the emergency room entrance and was looked at rudely upon first.

"Hey, you can't be in.." an employee began, but stopped when he saw Cat Noir out cold in Jade's arms. Then he gasped loud enough for everyone to hear. "What happened to him?!"

"He was knocked unconscious by an akumatized villain."

 _Say, 'And he's been poisoned.'_ Wayzz added.

"I think he might have been poisoned as well."

"Alright, we better move!" the emergency worker exclaimed.

They put him onto a stretcher and ran down the hall.

"Do you know what kind of poison the akumatized villain injected into him?" a female employee asked.

"No clue." Jade Ninja answered.

They rushed him into an operating room. Jade Ninja sat down in a chair next to his comatose friend.

 _How did you know that Cat was poisoned?_ Jade silently asked his kwami.

 _I can sense a negative energy around him, even while I'm helping you in your transformation of Jade Ninja. He's been poisoned, but I can't tell you what the poison is._ he answered.

Jade Ninja sat down as the emergency worker staffed cured him. Much to Jade's surprise, Cat Noir never detrasnsformed, even when seemingly in a coma and quite possibly on the verge of death. Eventually, he got a call from Renard.

"We've finally managed to transport Flora to the nearest prison." he reported.

"That's good to hear."

Abeille took Renard's communicator. "Is Cat Noir ok?"

"He was poisoned. The poison's been drained out of his system, but he's still out... He'll be fine... I hope."

"We'll be right there." Renard said.

He hung up, leaving a sleeping Cat Noir with a worried Jade. Soon the other superheroes arrived.

Abeille looked disheartened. "Oh my gosh... He looks so lifeless." She looked at her hands. "Maybe I should use Benevolence on him."

"It's supposed to be used for repairing objects and fixing what's broken. Could it even be used for healing?" Renard asked.

Cat Noir slowly woke up and looked around him. "Ow... Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital. Hopital Saint-Louis to be exact."

"The hospital?" He widened his eyes which Jade Ninja noticed were full of fear. "Where's Marinette?!"

Jade Ninja nodded sadly, which confirmed his worst fear. "By the time we arrived, it was all but too late. Marinette was gone and Flora was the only one there."

"Don't worry, Cat. Me and Abeille put Flora in her place." Renard added. Cat Noir started crying, much to his friends' confusion. "Cat Noir?"

"I... I failed. I promised that I would protect her. Now that I've failed, I can't help but feel shame and sorrow."

"I don't even get it. What did Hawkmoth want from Marinette anyway?" Renard asked his team.

Jade shrugged. "I thought it was because she contributed in the downfall of Queen Bee and Volpina."

Abeille nodded. "That is the most common theory I've heard of, but it was never confirmed." The feline superhero got up from the bed. "Where are you going? And where's Adrien?"

"I have to make things right. And Adrien went back to his home."

Cat Noir then left, leaving the trio in confusion once again. They stood there in awkward silence until a nurse came in. "Where's Cat Noir?" she asked.

"He woke up and left." Jade answered.

She looked at them sadly with maybe the tiniest hint of skepticism. "And none of you tried to stop him?"

"He seemed fine and there was no reason to try." Abeille answered.

The nurse shrugged and left. "I guess we should depart." Renard suggested.

Jade and Abeille nodded in agreement, so they went their separate ways. Nino stood in the commons of the school, where he was found by Sabrina and Nathaniel.

"There you are!" the red haired artist exclaimed.

Sabrina added, "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"We should probably tell them what happened to Adrien, Zoe and Marinette."

They discussed it (without any revealing of secret identities), then nodded in unison before going back into the classroom.

"Almost done..." Ivan grumbled.

"You guys ready?" Mylene asked from the top of Ivan's shoulders, who stood on the top step of a step-stool.

Nino looked up, only to find Alix hanging from a vine on the ceiling.

"Ready." Kim and Max said in unison.

Mylene cut the vine around her ankle with a pair of clippers and she began to fall. Kim caught her before she fell to the ground.

"Finally I'm down from there." Alix said. She turned to her cocky boyfriend. "Now could you put me down?"

He did so. Ms. Mendeleiev turned to the trio. "Ah, you guys are back. What news do you bring?"

"Adrien has returned to his home. I was told by Cat Noir." Sabrina answered.

"What about Zoe?" Rose asked.

"She was akumatized and taken to Fresnes Prison." Nathaniel answered. "I saw Renard and Abeille drag her there."

"And Marinette?" Alya asked, her eyes full of fear.

The entire class waited in anxious silence. Everyone was wondering what happened to her. Nino nodded sadly. "She's gone. In the hands of Hawkmoth."

The class gasped. Alya was so loud that everyone looked at her. "NO!" She screamed and cried.


	20. The Aftermath

Nino did not sleep well that night. After waking up to a nightmare of Zoe being killed in her akumatized state of mind by the other superheroes, he looked at his alarm clock; 4:52am. He tried to go back to bed, without any luck. He got up again at 5:20 and went into Zoe's room. He thought he saw something so he turned on the light switch. He gasped as he saw that all of Zoe's flowers had wilted, save for one. Nino knew that Zoe took great care of her flowers, so how did they all die overnight? He did not know, but the only flower remaining was a small orchid plant that had yet to bloom.

"Zoe..." he clinched his fist and tried to hold back his tears. "I know that you can't hear me, but I know you're truly a good soul who didn't deserve to become a pawn for Hawkmoth. I vow that until you return, I'll look after your garden. Or rather, what remains of it.."

He broke into tears that fell on the orchid plant as he watered it. Nino felt as if the whole world had fallen apart. His friend Marinette was kidnapped by Flora, and she was Zoe's akumatized form. He didn't think it could get any worse. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

"You're kidding."

"I'm not kidding." Alix said as they stood in the commons.

Max nodded sadly in agreement. "Adrien has dropped out of school."

Nino was saddened and shocked. "But.. but why?"

Kim shrugged. "I don't know. He even asked his chauffeur to pick up his bags yesterday since he wouldn't go back here to retrieve them."

"Could his father be forcing him to do this?!"

"I doubt it." Alix answered.

They went up to class. Everyone was depressed. Ms. Bustier was not there, and so the students were left to their own devices. Some caught up on the homework they forgot about the previous night. Then came Ms. Mendeleiev's class. She fell slightly behind in grading their assignments.

"I know everyone's depressed after yesterday's events, but we must carry on." the science teacher reminded them.

"How can we?! Nearly all of my friends are gone!" Nino snapped.

"Perhaps you should let him speak to a counselor for emotional support. He's going through a rough time." Nathaniel suggested.

Amelia sighed. "Alright. Here's a hall pass." She handed a slip of blue paper to him.

"I'll take him to the counselor, for moral support." Alya said.

The two left the room. He was about to go down the stairs, but Alya stopped him.

"Aren't we supposed to be going to the counselor's office?" he asked.

She looked him with her eyebrows scrunched and her face in a scowl. "Nino, I want answers. Why were you trying so hard to protect Zoe?"

"Alya... I know you're angry, and you deserve an explanation." He sighed. "The thing is... Zoe, she's not only a foreign exchange student, but she's also a resident at the Lahiffe apartment. She... she refused to believe anything about Hawkmoth, the akumas, and the Miraculous legends, whether it be past or present. Since she didn't believe any of the above, I thought she was in more danger than the average citizen. I was paranoid that she would be akumatized, or worse, willingly go down the path of darkness like Lila did. I've never really told anyone except for Adrien about this, but Lila's betrayal hurt me. It felt worse than a kick to the rear.

"I know I've cancelled some of our dates, and I apologize for my dishonesty. I should tell you what actually happened. While I've never been romantically involved with her, she is sort of like a sister to me. On Bastille Day, I took her to a skating rink, got her some pastries from Marinette's bakery and watched the fireworks show in the park. On August 20th, I showed her a bird's eye view from the Eiffel Tower. On September 1st, Zoe was the one actually sick, not my sister. I wanted to be sure she would be okay. I'm sorry I've been a bad boyfriend and you probably hate m.."

She grabbed his collar, and smashed her lips onto his. For six seconds, he was so surprised that he couldn't shut his eyes. After closing his eyes, he threw his arms around her and deepened the kiss.

"You still love me?"

She chuckled. "Who said that I had stopped?"

"I thought you hated me for forgetting about you."

"I was being stupid by jumping to conclusions."

He looked at her crazily. "You always jump to conclusions. You had the right to be suspicious. I was the one being stupid by hanging out with another girl."

"Let's just say that we were both being stupid and move on."

"Yeah.." He chuckled slightly before looking at his girlfriend again. He threw his arms around her. "Alya, you mean everything to me, and now, with Marinette's capture, Zoe's akumatization, and Adrien leaving with no explanation, you're all I have left. If anything were to happen to you, I.." He started crying. "I don't know what I'd do."

"Don't worry, everything will be ok." She looked at Nino sincerely. "Feel any better?"

"Although now what do we do? Head back to class?"

Alya pondered to herself for a moment. "We could, but where's the fun in that?"

They ran down the stairs, where no one could find them. The DJ smirked, tackled her to the ground and proceeded to make out with her. For most of the class period, they were cuddling, smooching, or telling each other jokes to lighten their spirits. When they returned to the class, they discovered why Zoe had been akumatized and why she thought that Adrien was single in the first place.

"Don't you have something that must be said to them?" Max inquired. "They have a right to know what happened, especially Nino."

Nino glared at the pink haired skater. "What happened?"

"I... I'm the one responsible for her akumatization. I typed up a note that read _'Dear Zoe, I cannot help but be spellbound by your beauty and your kind heart. Meet me over nearby the box office during lunch. Signed Adrien Agreste.'_ After typing up the note and printing it, I put it on her locker, hoping she would fall for it. I set up a chair, video recording equipment, ate a box lunch and some popcorn, and watched the chaos unfold."

"Alix, how could you?!" Nino screamed.

"How else was I supposed to get back at her?" Alix retorted. "Despite the fact that I had defeated my evil self, I still feared that history could repeat itself again. I had to type it since I had no literate forgery skills, nor do I know anyone who has those said skills. Anyone have the ability to mimic Adrien's writing?" Silence dominated the room. "Just as I thought."

"Do you have any regrets about doing this plan?"

"Yes. I had no idea what the consequences would be and while I was laughing and enjoying seeing Zoe suffer. I shouldn't have hurt her because of her obliviousness. If only I could turn back the clock..."

Nino, despite his great loss, was sure that things would get better. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Akuma attacks became very common, occurring at least four times a week. One time, there were three akuma attacks in a single day. About a month later, on October 30th, Jade Ninja, Renard and Abeille were facing their worst akumatized villain yet; Merlin.

He was a wizard with a long purple cloak with various sigils and symbols such as stars and spirals. His hood was over his head, but one could still see a little bit of his black hair on his head. He carried a wand in his cloak and he mainly wielded a four foot tall staff with a blue glass sphere. He fired numerous blasts of blue energy from his staff at the heroes. They were fighting on the rooftop of an apartment building.

"We have to stop him!" Abeille exclaimed as she dodged another blast.

Renard looked at Merlin in terror. "We're running of time!"

Merlin shot a beam of energy from his hands at Merlin, only for him to extend his right hand. His hand glowed with gold energy. "I think your attempt will backfire!" He drew an arrow pointing in Renard's direction. The attack fired right back at him. And he was blasted to the ground.

"Ow.."

Merlin fired a beam of black light towards Renard, only to be shielded by Jade's shield. Abeille jumped down and pursued the wizard.

"You'll never get past this shield!"

"Blinding sun and witches fire, your shield's time now expires!"

A red ball hit his shield, turning it from a bright green to a dull forest green. It also began to rust and dent up.

"My shield! It's useless!"

Abeille was screaming, as she was trapped in a hand of fire. Renard's Miraculous beeped. Was it the first time or the second?

"I'm running out of power." he mumbled. "I'll be back in a bit!"

He ran off to a nearby alley as Abeille cried out for help. Jade was scrambling to find a solution before Abeille was burned to death or died from suffocation. He tried to throw his shield at the hand with no luck. Renard quickly reentered the battlefield and blasted a beam of energy at the hand of fire, causing it vanish in a puff of orange-colored smoke.

Jade looked at teammates, distressed from the battle. "What do I do now? My shield can't protect us from his ruthless onslaught of attacks."

Abeille grabbed his hand and took him to an ally so they could catch their breath. Renard then followed. She scanned her surroundings and looked closely at his staff. "We got to get that staff away from him!"

"It won't do us any good, Abeille! He can use those powers with or without the staff!" Renard cried out.

"But it will make him less powerful!"

"Guys!" Jade scolded.

Merlin noticed them. He threw fireballs at the trio, in which they swiftly dodged. He then threw ice at Jade Ninja, causing him to be encased in ice. He floated upward to the roof. Abeille followed him by climbing up the fire escape, leaving him out of Jade's line of vision. He couldn't see what was happening on the rooftop.

"Your days of terror are over, Merlin!"

"Abeille, don't!" Renard warned.

Jade Ninja realized what happened all too late. The akuma was lose.


	21. Damaged Beyond Repair

This whole situation was slowly getting out of hand. The akuma was now loose. Jade Ninja broke free from the ice and the Tremendous Trio ran after it.

"Come on guys, the akuma is getting away!" Jade Ninja exclaimed.

Renard snapped, "We know that!" He turned to Abeille, looking at her wings. "Why aren't you flying after it?"

"Don't you remember?! I can't fly!"

Abeille looked to Jade. "Why can't Jade use his shield to hover after it?"

"It suffered too much damage and shut down. It won't work for who knows how long!"

"Then try to slow the akuma down! We need time!"

"Time Crawl!"

Jade threw a green beam of energy from his hands at the akuma, slowing it down significantly. Then thought in terror to himself, _What if my shield is permanently damaged? What if it can never be repaired, with or without the aid of Ladybug, who is still gone?_

He got so lost in thought that he had missed part of an argument between Renard and Abeille.

"I swore I would never use those abilities!" Abeille yelled.

"You have to!" Renard exclaimed. "The fate of Paris is at stake!"

"I'm not using those powers! Absolute power corrupts absolutely! I'm not Queen Bee!"

"I know you're not! But we don't have any choice!"

Abeille and Jade looked at the akuma. The latter's power was wearing off.

"I.. I don't know how to use Malevolence or Poison Sting."

"Use Poison Sting. Picture purple energy around your spear and aim carefully. You only get one shot!"

"How do I charge it?!"

"Focus your anger! Think of what you hate the most!"

Abeille got really angry. What she thought of, Nino didn't know. Nonetheless, the spear was quickly charged with purple energy. But Jade's spell on the akuma had broken. He gasped.

"Hurry!" Renard urged.

"Poison Sting!" Abeille chanted. The purple stream of energy was supposed to hit the akuma, but it didn't. It bounced off mirrors until it hit a little girl. She screamed in pain as Abeille's attack engulfed her. "NO!" Abeille screamed. She dropped her spear and ran to the girl. "I didn't mean to hurt you..."

She fell to her knees. Abeille backed away, and she and everyone else looked to the sky. The citizens gasped in horror.

Renard's face alone said the message. "It's over."

The moment after he spoke, the akuma multiplied and spread throughout the city. One of the new akumas then took hold of the poor young girl, turning her into a copy of Merlin. The crowd had gathered around the four way intersection, wondering what would happen next.

Renard opened with a sarcastic comment. "Nice going, Abeille! This is all your fault!"

Abeille retaliated, "My fault?! How is this my fault?!"

"You're the one who broke the akumatized object! You're not supposed to break it!"

"I didn't mean to! How was I supposed to know where the akuma was?!"

"You idiot! Akumatized objects are always the villain's main weapon!"

"Wrong! It's usually a weapon, but not always! Have you not heard of the Gamer? Antibug? Kung Food?!"

Jade tried to stop the argument. "Guys, knock it off!"

Abeille's Miraculous beeped.

"You should have known better!"

"We were about to be vanquished! What did you expect me to do?!"

"Knock it off, you two!" Jade yelled, but neither of them listened to him.

Abeille glared at Renard. "You're always criticizing me for every fault!"

"I'm trying to protect the city! With the Lucky Duo gone, there's no room for error!"

Jade couldn't take their arguing anymore. "How long are you guys going to keep this up?!"

"Until my time runs out!"

The Bee Miraculous beeped again.

"You can't do anything right! Ladybug made the wrong choice!"

Abeille was running out of retorts to say to him. "Shut up! I never what to see either of you again! You're wrong!"

"You can't lie. You know I'm right. You don't belong here on the team! You don't deserve your Miraculous!"

"I said, 'Shut the hell up!'"

She slapped him in the face with all her might. Jade cringed and the crowd gasped. Abeille's Miraculous beeped again. She was about to detransform in less than a minute. The orange-haired girl ran away with her hands covering her face, pushing civilians out of the way to escape.

Jade glared at his teammate. "Nice going Renard!"

Renard shrugged. "What? I'm only being honest."

"With the Lucky Duo M.I.A, we need all the help we can get! And now Abeille's left us behind!"

The fox pointed at Jade. "So what? You're the one in charge of the group. It's your fault she left."

"My fault? You're the one always criticizing her! You're nothing but a jerk!"

He felt offended. "What?! I'm not a jerk!"

"You're really horrible! I can't stand working with you and Abeille arguing 24/7!"

"If I'm so horrible, then maybe I should leave too. I don't need you punks!"

Renard stormed off.

"Fine!" Jade yelled. "With friends like you..." his voice softened. "who needs... enemies?" All of his anger turned to sorrow. He left as the crowd dispersed. After he got away from the crowd, he jumped to the nearest rooftop. As he returned to the present, he detransformed.

"I can't believe this. Not only is your shield broken, you've lost your teammates." Wayzz said.

"I fear my shield may be broken forever."

"You can try transforming again."

"Wayzz, scales on!"

He transformed into Jade Ninja again, hoping it would fix his shield. It didn't. He fed Wayzz some spinach leaves and tried again. Still no luck. He gave up and went back home. He plopped onto his bed and detransformed.

"Nino, dinner's ready!" his mom said. Wayzz hid under Nino's hat. She opened the door.

"I'm not hungry. I'll think I'll pass."

He turned away from her. Her face turned into an expression of sorrow and concern. "Nino? Is everything okay?"

"Just leave me alone. There's nothing that can be done."

"You're... you're not thinking of suicide, are you?"

He looked at her. "No." He then turned away.

"Then why can't you..." she began.

"Just leave me alone!" He gasped for air. "Everything is damaged beyond repair."

Nino's mom respected her son's wishes and left. Wayzz got out from under Nino's hat and locked the door. As soon as the door was locked, his turtle started crying. The green kwami wanted to say something to reassure Nino that everything would be alright, but he too was beginning to lose faith. Nino didn't feel hungry or tired. He was so sorrowful. The young DJ and superhero had lost almost all of his friends and allies. Cat Noir was gone, and Ladybug too, Abeille and Renard had left him behind, tearing the trio apart, Zoe was akumatized and in prison, Marinette was captured and in the custody of Hawkmoth.

And as for his best friend Adrien? He still hadn't heard anything from him. Where was he? What had become of him? All he had left was his girlfriend Alya, who was now struggling with depression. His shield was broken. Even if he could find another, it wouldn't be as good as the original in its prime.

He was supposed to be the leader and the protector. The one to defend his loved ones. The one to fix what was wrong. The one to keep everything together. But he had failed in all of these. Everything was damaged beyond repair, and there was no way to fix it.


	22. A New Bag of Trixx

Nathaniel never felt so bad in his life. As Renard, he just messed up big time. Even though Abeille was the one who broke the akumatized object and failed to destroy the akuma, he was the one who ultimately tore the team apart. Guilt tore at his heart. _Why am I the one who can't handle anything?_ he thought.

He wanted to feel anger. To him, anger felt better than sorrow. But the fox could not help but feel sorrow and guilt. He could hide his emotions from the world, but he could not lie to himself about how he felt. He never could have foreseen the disaster, or how he would feel afterwards. He remembered him first receiving the Fox Miraculous and how he felt. A few months ago, a few days after summer break started, he was gathering the mail from the mailbox to try and find his report card before his parents or his brother did.

He found two letters to his dad, one to his mom, one to his brother and the last one that read _To the parents of Nathaniel Kurtzberg. High School Francoise Dupont._ He opened the letter slowly and breathed in. He closed his eyes and read the document. His jaw dropped.

"Looking at how bad your report card is?" a mocking voice asked.

It was from his brother, Pierre. He was a man of 19 years. Like Nathaniel, he had red hair and the same pale skin, but his eyes were green instead of light blue. He was always dressed for success, as he put it; a black suit with polished black shoes and a dark gray necktie. His hair was neatly combed and his nails perfectly trimmed. Because of this attire, many believed he was in the school of business. But he was actually in law school to become a lawyer.

Nathaniel didn't get to answer his brother's question, because his father appeared out of nowhere and took the report card. Nathaniel's mother appeared right behind him. Adolphus examined the document and his mouth hung open. "I... I can't believe it."

"It's horrible, isn't it?" Pierre asked.

Nathan, who had a calm look as his father opened the document, turned into a smirk. "I don't think that's the case."

"All grades except for Chemistry are A's. Chemistry is a B minus." he answered.

"A B minus?!" Pierre asked.

"I.. I am amazed. I never thought would have been possible. Nathaniel not only passed the class, he increased his grade by three levels in a single quarter! I had never even thought it possible to raise your grade letter that high in such a short amount of time."

The young artist shrugged. "I guess I've done the impossible.."

"We must celebrate. Sometime later this week, we will go out to eat at a place of Nathaniel's choosing. Doesn't matter how expensive the place is."

"What?!" Pierre exclaimed.

Nathaniel smiled. Then his mother realized something. "Don't we still have to celebrate Nathaniel's victory against Volpina at the Battle at City Hall?"

"You're right. I have neglected to do that as well. Therefore, we will have two celebration dinners." Adolphus stated.

Pierre growled softly. Nathaniel smiled and laughed. "Thank you dad. You're too kind." He took back the report card. "Do you know if we have any pins? I want to hang my report card on the wall."

"I believe we have some right here." His mother opened up a drawer with numerous items in it, including a bowl of push-pins.

"Thanks." He carefully grabbed a pin and went to his room. He pinned the report card next to the picture of his normal self on one half of his body and Evillustrator on the other. The redheaded teen then turned to his nightstand and saw a black box with red designs on it.

 _What is that? Is it a present for my_ _success?_ Nathaniel asked himself. _I've already got two celebratory dinners coming up, I wouldn't think my dad would purchase this for me. I might as well see what it is._

Nathaniel opened the box and was nearly blinded by the orange sphere of light. When the light faded, he saw a shape fox-like creature.

"Who are you? What are you?" he asked in wonder.

"I'm Trixx, and I am a kwami." the small fox answered.

He looked at the box that he dropped and saw a fox necklace. "A.. a Miraculous? You want me to be the next Fox Miraculous wielder?"

"There you go. You're pretty smart for a young man."

He held the Miraculous in his hand. "This... this is totally crazy..."

"Will you do it?" Trixx asked.

He looked at the accessory he held in his right hand. "I will. Although, since I'm going to have to wear the necklace everyday, won't people see me as unmasculine?"

"You could always hide it under your shirt."

"I like that idea." He put on the necklace and tucked it under his t-shirt. Out of sight, but not out of mind. "Alright, so I believe I know how the Fox Miraculous works. I can create illusions by playing my flute, which is my weapon when I'm transformed, and I can create a orange energy beams to attack foes."

"That's right. Now you've only got five charges for either of these abilities, so it doesn't matter how you combine em, five illusions, five energy beams, three illusions and two energy beams, once you've used your power five times, you'll have run out of power and a five minute countdown will begin. Once those five minutes are up, you'll automatically detransform."

"Alright. So, how I do get my strength back after that happens?"

"You must recharge your kwami by giving them their favorite kind of food. In this case, it's me and my favorite kind of food is red hot chill peppers. Or anything spicy for that matter."

Nathaniel looked at Trixx, puzzled. "Huh. Spicy food. That seems strange to me but, eh. I guess we all have our tastes. Now one last thing, how do I transform?"

"Just say, 'Trixx, ears up!'"

He nodded. "Got it. Although I should be off the hook for now."

"Don't say that, cause pretty soon, you'll have an attack occurring."

Trixx's prediction came true only a few days later. While parents were at work and Pierre was doing his internship job, Darkblade had returned for the second time.

"Do you think you've got what it takes?"

Nathaniel nodded. "Trixx, ears up!"

As Trixx was absorbed into the necklace, five small lines formed on the accessory. Using only a single finger from each hand, he swiped it backwards under his eyes, much like a warrior putting on war paint. As he did this, his orange mask formed. He extended his arms with his fist enclosed as the magic formed his supersuit. The energy moved downward, continuing to transform him. His fox tail formed and soon his ears perked up, as if they were listening to something far away. He spun himself around and held his arms inward with fists still enclosed while smirking. The transformation was complete.

The fox moved quickly, trying to think of a plan while making his way to the battlefield.


	23. The Life of an Artist

The fox superhero arrived at the scene. While a turtle-themed superhero shielded himself, he thought of an idea. He got out his flute and played a brief tune. He created an illusion of Cat Noir being held captive by knights after the real deal broke free. Darkblade looked at Cat Noir fighting and waved his hand through Renard's illusion. At that moment, the fox came out of the shadows and engaged the knights in combat, using his flute as a sword against them.

"I have no time here. They won't stop me this time!"

While Renard held back a knight, he looked out the corner of his left eye and saw Darkblade running towards city hall.

"He's getting away!" he cried out.

"Oh no he ain't!" a feminine voice claimed.

Out of nowhere, he saw an orange-haired girl with a black and yellow striped outfit falling through the air before spinning the staff to land on her feet. She glared at Darkblade as she held her spear in her right hand.

"Young maiden, out of the way, unless you wish to become a knight yourself." Darkblade commanded.

"Not happening, Darkblade!" she exclaimed.

She used her spear to chip away at his armor, although Renard thought that she may have been holding back. He told himself not to criticize her too much. After the interview (to which he learned the names of his coworkers; Jade Ninja and Abeille), he went back home and resumed his painting activities. Unbeknownst to most of his classmates, Nathaniel not only liked to draw, he also loved painting. He wanted to paint pictures for a living, but most of his immediate family (aside from his mother) didn't support his career choice. He currently had three paintings he was working on; Cat's Confusion, Villain's Convention, and The Tremendous Trio. Cat's Confusion was halfway done, Villain's Convention only had the background painted, and he was very close to completing the Tremendous Trio.

Tremendous Trio was on his desk, which was close to the entrance of his room. Paintbrushes were scattered on the table and a palette with numerous shades of green, orange, yellow and a few other colors could be found as well. The other paintings were on separate easels covered by tan cloths.

He was working on the last touches to Jade Ninja's shield when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." he said.

His brother entered. He looked at the painting. "Still painting your pointless little picture?"

"It's not pointless. In fact..." He did a few more strokes to outline the edge of Jade's shield. "There. My masterpiece is complete."

Pierre stood in silence for a few brief moments. "Well, can you get ready to go in ten minutes?"

"Sure. No problem."

Le Grand Paris Restaurant, which was the first of Nathaniel's two restaurants that he had chosen, was where Nathaniel and his family would be going tonight. He made an effort to make himself look nicer. He put on a white dress shirt and a black coat (so that Trixx could travel with him inconspicuously) and got a black pair of pants with grey shoes and black socks. He thought about wearing an orange and white tie, but since they were a pain to tie correctly, he omitted it.

The fox looked at him and whistled. "So what's with the get up?"

"My family's going out to eat at Le Grand Paris restaurant to celebrate me rising my grade from an F to a B."

"An F to a B?" Trixx asked. "That's like three grade levels up. How is that even possible?!"

Nathaniel chuckled. "You sound like Pierre. He's in complete shock too. Let's get moving shall we?"

Trixx hid herself under Nathaniel's coat and he walked out the door.

"You ready?" his mother asked.

The red-haired artist smiled. "Sure am."

"Is Pierre ready?" Adolphus asked.

"It can't take him that long." Nathaniel commented. "He's already dressed for the occasion!"

Nathaniel's brother entered the room, dressed in the same attire he always wore. "I'm here, don't freak."

Adolphus smiled briefly and grabbed his keys. "Perfect. Now let's go."

The four of them drove over to Le Grand Paris Hotel and made it with time to spare before their six o'clock reservation. They all sat on a bench and waited about five minutes for their table. Nathaniel looked around and noticed the lack of people at the restaurant, and the hotel in general had less residents.

"It doesn't seem as crowded as it normally looks. And it's a Friday too." Nathaniel stated. "Why is this?"

"Some people are boycotting against the Bourgeois family by not coming here." Pierre responded. "They're angry with him, because a small percentage of people believe Mr. Bourgeois caused Chloe to turn to the dark side and become Queen Bee. In fact, according to what I was told by Jalil, a student in my history class, after Queen Bee and Volpina's defeat, nearly a quarter of the hotel residents promptly signed out and took their business elsewhere. They believe he is responsible for her willingly turning to the dark side."

"Even then, it's not his fault."

His brother looked at him, amused. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I do. I know how horrible Chloe is. Her father had nothing to do with it."

"Kurtzberg, party of four." a voice spoke.

They stood up and followed the hostess to their table. The table was close to the window, allowing them to see Paris down below. They ordered their appetizers and soon began a conservation.

"The city at night looks so pretty." Mrs. Kurtzberg said.

"I agree with you completely, Sierra." Adolphus stated.

Sierra turned to her youngest son. "So how have you been doing, Nathaniel?"

"I've been working on one of my paintings. And guess what, I've finally got one done."

"Really, how wonderful!"

Pierre scoffed. "I don't think it will sell."

"Everyone's a critic." Nathaniel said in an aloof tone.

"So, which painting was it?" Sierra asked.

"The Tremendous Trio."

Adolphus inquired, "The Tremendous Trio?"

"Yeah. That's the name given to the trio of Superheroes that entered the scene after Queen Bee and Volpina's defeat and punishment in court. The painting shows the heroes in the park, facing an akumatized villain in the form of a shadow. The scene depicts Jade Ninja shielding Abeille from a black energy beam and Renard playing his flute to create an illusion. While Jade is shielding Abeille, she is looking towards the akumatized villain, which is just a shadow since I was unsure of which akumatized villain would be the best to put into the painting, who has been slowed down by Jade's Time Crawl ability and is attempting to figure out a plan on how to defeat him." Nathaniel explained. "The picture took me nearly a month to create, and now it's done!"

The judge mused to himself for a few seconds. "How much do you think it could sell for?"

Nathaniel shrugged. "I don't have a clue."

A platter with pieces of baguette was placed on their table.

"Your mussels appetizer will be out shortly," said the waitress before running off.

Everyone each took a piece. Adolphus noted, "Fresh out of the oven. Nice."

"This almost tastes familiar." Nathaniel mumbled to himself. "No, it can't be..."

"What is it?"

"This bread tastes exactly like the kind you'd get at the Dupain-Cheng bakery!"

"But how?"

"Hey um, sir, I hate to badger you, but who made the baguette here tonight? It's delicious."

"Tom Dupain actually."

Nathaniel smirked. He knew that name anywhere. "I knew it!" The waiter ran off. "It seems Marinette's father must have gotten a temporary job here so they can continue paying the bills."

Pierre was extremely baffled. "I thought her father's name was Dupain-Cheng."

"No, her father is Tom Dupain and her mother is Sabine Cheng. Marinette's last name is a combination of the two."

"Keeping a maiden name?" Pierre turned to his father. "Is that even allowed?"

"Actually it is." he answered. "When a woman gets married, she has four choices; take her husband's surname, keep her own, adopt a hybrid of the two names, or in some rare cases, change it to something completely unrelated to her husband's surname or her own."

Nathaniel glared at his older brother. "Wow, assuming women can't keep their maiden names. How sexist are you?"

Pierre started steaming with fury. His face fumed red. "Nathaniel, how dare!-"

"Enough, both of you!" Adolphus ordered. "Can't we go for one night without you two arguing?!"

The table was eerily silent for about four minutes until the mussels were delivered to their table. After the mussels were completely devoured, they ordered their entrees.

"So Nathaniel, what are you going to be doing with your spare time? Aside from painting and drawing?" Sierra asked.

Nathan shrugged. "Not sure. Might join Alya for some photography of the superheroes for some inspiration."

Adolphus smiled at Nathaniel, "You'll have the whole house to yourself most of the day."

"Oh yeah right. Pierre has that internship, leaving me free to paint without distraction."

Adolphus looked at his son sadly before turning back to his neutral look. Was he worried about him? Nathaniel couldn't tell. "You haven't thought about changing your career path, have you?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Nothing. Forget it."

Nathaniel frowned. His father didn't say it, but he knew that his dad wanted him to choose a different career path. He always told him that being an artist was not easy and that he was very unlikely to make a living as an artist. Pierre also told him that he was doomed to fail if he continued down his current pathway. His mother was the only one who really supported him in his career path as a famous artist. He knew the stories of other French artists who were poor because they chose being an artist. From Leonardo Da Vinci to Claude Monet and time knows who else was poor, many artists were plagued with financial and/or emotional turmoil.

 _If most of my immediate family doesn't support me in my decision to become an artist, then will my future wife accept it?_ he began to think to himself.

He thought of Marinette, his former crush and long-time friend. The blue-haired girl supported him in his chosen path and she too, was shooting for the moon; She wanted to be a famous fashion designer. Pierre told him that becoming a famous fashion designer was a hundred times more likely to succeed than being an artist. Why did he support her but ridicule him? Suddenly another image came to his mind. An image of a girl with long black hair and purple streaks...

"Nathaniel?" his mother asked. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Were you thinking of your crush, Marinette?"

"I got over her months ago."

Why was he thinking of that girl with purple streaks in her hair? Sure, they were friends, but he couldn't have feelings for Juleka, could he? He had no more time to think, because their entrees arrived and after they ordered dessert, he did not return to his previous thoughts. After the meal was finished, they all went back home. Nathaniel went back to his room to get out of the clothes he was wearing. He entered his bedroom, turned on the light switch next to the door before shutting it and gasped. His completed painting was ruined. Jade's shield was now a splotch of green instead of having all those fine details.

"My painting... It's ruined!"

"Who could have done something so sneaky?"

Nathaniel pondered briefly to himself. An image of a red-haired, green-eyed man came to his mind. He growled and clutched his paintbrush. "Pierre..."


End file.
